Cheerful Pretty Cure!
by Ryta-chan
Summary: When the world of Euphorium loses the four Everlasting Lights of Cheer, their main source of power, the Queen of Euphorium has no other options left but to call on the Pretty Cure to save both her own world and the human realm from a reality filled with despair and dread!
1. Prologue

"So, will you please tell me already?" A young girl who seemed to be no older than twelve years old with long dark hair questioned to a figure on the opposite side of the room. The girl was sitting at a writing desk that seemed to have been custom made for her, being both very small to accommodate to her size and very intricate with an array of fancy carvings at the side of it. The figure, who was standing at the other side of the room, gazing out through a window, smiled to the young girl graciously. The figure standing on the opposite end of the room was a woman in a bright blue ball gown adorned with many gems and a lot of lace. Her dark auburn hair was cropped short reaching to her neck and her skin was rather fair. She appeared to be a lot older than the young girl, old enough to be her mother or aunt perhaps and said,

"I've already told you Ana, Sunrises make me happy as does the kingdom, riding a bicycle, all the inhabitants of Euphorium, and most importantly, you and your father." The woman answered with a small sigh trailing after.

Ana furrowed her brows and held back on a sigh as she replied," That wasn't what I asked. I asked, _why_ do those things make you happy?"

The regal woman shook her head and smiled a little as she walked near to Ana. When she was close enough she said,

"There are countless reasons why-"

"Queen Aurelie!" A voice called out from outside of the room," Pardon the intrusion, but we need you to look into something over here."

"I'll be just a moment!" Aurelie shouted back before turning her focus back to Ana,"We'll...discuss this a little later ok?"

Ana said nothing in response and only nodded her head, well-aware of the fact that the Queen had more pressing issues at hand that needed to be dealt. She didn't have time to waste in a debate with her, she hardly ever did. It may've been ok if she was a normal civilian here in Euphorium, just an average person without a drop of royal blood in them. But, Ana was far from an average civilian here in Euphorium, despite the fact that she looked and acted like it.

Being the daughter of the Queen and King of Euphorium technically made Emiliana, who rather be called Ana by her closest of friends along with her parents, a princess but somehow...princess wasn't really the word that appeared to Ana's life when she thought about it. She didn't feel like a princess, despite living in a castle, nor did she dress like one despite her own tailor. The only thing that she could associate with both herself and the term princess was the idea that these two were different from most people.

Ana felt as if she questioned things too much and so that often led her to being told she should just avoid over-thinking things or that if she'd wallow in her thoughts for too long she'd regret it. So, she tried her absolute hardest to keep herself from over-thinking and letting her thoughts run wild. She tried to make sure she'd ask as much as she could without being told she was looking too much into things. But, there was that one question that kept running through her mind, day and night, whenever she got bored and had nothing to occupy her.

"What is it that makes people happy?"

What do people need to feel happy? Why is it that someone's happiness might be the cause of someone's else despair? Is happiness supposed to be what we automatically always feel? What was about happiness that made that very feeling feel new every time we felt it?

Ana looked to the ground sheepishly, knowing that these were too many questions for such a topic, a topic that shouldn't ever be subject to such strident interrogation; Considering this was a land that was practically built on happiness.

Euphorium, a realm that world away from Earth, was a joyous land that brimming with cheer and magic. This land was, unlike any other in the sense that happiness was evidently the most important thing to everyone here. Happiness leads to greater things, happiness inspires us, touches our hearts in a way that no other emotion can. Happiness works in strange ways and it come and go in even stranger ways.

Ana often wondered if there was more happiness than what she had been told, considering the stories she had often been told always felt rather...non-genuine. Maybe it was just her, maybe she was paying too much attention to the point of imagining things, like the persistently wistful tone in her mother's voice every time she told her of ancient tales from Euphoria, and the cringe that appeared on her mother's face when she said "Cure Jubilance", her former alter ego.

Ana left the room and ambled off into her bedroom. It was a quaint little space with shades of yellow and dark blue present in virtually every space of the room, from her bed sheets to her walls and even her curtains. The only thing in this room that seem to violate this room's colour scheme was a clear fish-bowl with a black and white flapjack octopus residing in it. Ana walked up to the fish-bowl and stared at the little octopus. It was fast asleep and Ana simply rolled her eyes at the sight, not expecting any different. She slowly pressed her index finger to the glass of the bowl then after a few seconds, she started to jab at it impatiently, the waiter in the bowl swishing a little as she did so. Normally, Ana was quite mindful of aquatic creatures and knew she shouldn't have been poking at the bowl so aggressively. It could've alarmed the little octopus, but since this octopus seemed to only ever sleep most of the days, Ana concluded that just a little pushiness wouldn't hurt the little creature.

"Kallie, get up, we're going to the lake side." Ana declared as she stopped jabbing the bowl to go get her bag on the other side of the room.

"You lazy squid." Ana grumbled as she shoved a nearby book into her bag.

"I heard that." Kallie commented as she swam up to the surface of her bowl, her voice groggy and rough from having just woke up," And you all of people should know I hate being awoken by others because I-"

"-Need your beauty rest, I know." Ana interrupted impatiently as she dashed to Kallie's side and picked up her bowl," But, I need to get out of the castle and I want to read you a story."

"A story? Which one is it today? The History of Euphorium or the History of Euphorium?" Kallie questioned in a somewhat mean-spirited voice, only to receive a glare from Ana.

"You know I can't take out books from the castle's library yet," Ana replied in agitation as she zipped through the halls of the castle in a stealthy manner.

Once Ana exited the castle, she ran down the hill it rested on, feeling a rush of adrenaline through her veins as her feet sped down the hill.

"I'm not sure if you heard me before, but I'm taking you to your favourite place! So today our little reading will be even more fun." Ana claimed as she slowed down her place, noticed Kallie seemed very disheveled from Ana's mad dash down the hill.

Once Ana got to the lake side, sat down on the grass and took in the view, she took out the book and opened it; But not before looking both ways to make sure there was no one around.

When she opened the book, a hologram appeared of her room, the Castle of Euphorium.

"Happiness is the key to life, happiness makes everything feel right..." Ana read out, well actually recited, considering she had read this book many, many times. Kallie seemed to be interested in the book as well despite having heard this story many times. But then, just before Ana was going to read the next page, Kallie interjected,

"Can we sit over there instead?"

"But this is where we always sit-"

"I know, but I'm feeling rather chilly here, so maybe it'll be warmer over there in the sun?" Kallie suggested. Ana still seemed hesitant, but eventually she complied and walked over to the sunnier spot as Kallie wanted.

"Alright, where was I?" Ana asked, though she knew very well where she'd she left off," The path to such joy may be quite long, you may even get tempted to do things that are wrong. But have no fear, you'll find your way, for even the stormiest clouds will drift away. When happiness is found, your problems will seem small, for happiness will reign victorious above all."

"Is that so?" A voice wondered aloud from the other side of the lake. Ana darted her head up immediately, having presumed she was the only one here. What she saw staring dead at her was what appeared to be a mass of pitch black coiled rope. She seemed greatly confused and slowly inched away from her spot, standing up slowly with her eyes still fixated on the coiled rope.

"What is that?" Ana asked fearfully in a quiet voice, while doubtful that Kallie could give her an answer.

"Snakes." Kallie whispered anxiously as Ana continued to inch away.

Ana asked in another whisper,"What?"

"Ana we need to get out of here!" Kallie hollered, receiving a rapid nod in approval from Ana as she picked up Kallie and began to run for dear life. Ana tried to run but the snakes projected themselves towards Ana and latched themselves around her ankles, causing Kallie to fall out of her grasp.

"Ana!" Kallie cried out, falling out from her fish bowl as Ana tried reaching out for her.

"What do you want from me?" Ana interrogated as she writhed around in the grasp of the snakes. From the lake appear a dark figure creeping out from it, with it's only distinguishable featured being long tangled green and black hair with piercing violet eyes. The figure grew closer and closer to Ana, staring her down while Kallie watched the two of them in distress.

"Happiness is fleeting, don't you know better?" The figure questioned," This whole land runs on a myth that happiness will last forever once you truly find it, but no my little princess, that's not how it works. This feeling of euphoria is nothing more than a figment of your imagination. The only thing bound to last forever is despair. Happiness was constructed from the belief of those fools who think that there's balance in this world. "

"I..." Ana began as she continued to try and break free from the snakes' clutch, though it seemed futile at this point.

"You can't even argue with my claim because you know it's true! You know that despair will find a way to crawl into the hearts of even the most happiest people, including people like, Queen Aurelie, the very ruler of Euphorium." The figure responded.

Suddenly one of the snakes grabbed Ana's book and gave it to the figure.

"You see this? Every word is this book is pure fiction, a falsehood to make you believe that happiness will always be there. But, I know that you're not like the others here, you actually feel as if something's off. You know better than to believe this book of make-believe. So Miss Emiliana, would you like to help me teach everyone in Euphorium how happiness truly works?"

"Um, I...think I would..."Ana trailed off unsurely, the snakes slowly loosening their grip on her ankles. The figure nodded as if trying to persuade her to side with her, nearing closer and closer until her face was only a few inches away from Ana's.

Ana then suddenly kicked the figure in the face as hard as she could, causing the snakes to fling off her ankles in the process.

She collected Kallie and her bowl and ran for dear life back to the castle.

"Race you there." The figure challenged as she turned the book into a vial of mysterious black liquid and disappeared in a flash.

"Ana, you need to run faster!" Kallie demanded as Ana dashed back home.

"But, I think we lost her..." Ana panted as she rested her hands on her knees for a brief moment," But I still want to know...What w _as_ she?"

"Emiliana where are you?" Ana heard what sounded like her mother calling for her. Ana spun around in an instant, spotting her mother running down the hill as fast as she could without tripping on her dress with a few guards accompanying.

"Mom!" Ana shouted as she rush to Queen Aurelie," There was this thing by the lake and it took my book and-"

"Why did you leave without my permission?" Aurelie asked quite sternly as she glowered down to Ana. Ana then sighed as she shook her head, reminding herself that she had something much more important to currently discuss with her mother.

"There was something that attacked me by the lakeside mom, it took away my book and then it started chasing me!" Ana exasperated in one breath.

"Something attacked you?" Aurelie repeated, her voice now ringing with concern," What on earth was it?"

Ana explained,"Just this pitch black figure that looked like a person, well in the shape of a person and-"

"You said it was chasing you, is it still after you?" One of the guards inquired.

"No, we lost it." Ana responded, expecting that answer to calm down the guards but only doing the exact opposite.

The guard hastily interjected,"Your majesty, we must head to-"

"To the sanctuary I know!" Aurelie interrupted in agitation with fear mixed into her voice as she looked towards Ana," Let's go."

The group darted towards the other end of the forest where the sanctuary was located, both Aurelie and Ana running out of breath before they reached the sanctuary. Aurelie urged Ana to carry on as it was only a little farther away now. The guards were way ahead of the duo now, but Aurelie had a sinking feeling that this could've ended in disaster, so she grabbed a hold of Ana's wrist and dragged her along, practically running for the both of them. When the two reached the sanctuary, Ana stopped running just to shiver as she felt cold sensation tingling down her spine.

"Come on, let's get going," Aurelie urged as she pulled open the doors.

"That thing has to be in there," Ana said under her breath as she tried to warm up her arms to get rid of the goose bumps that had emerged.

"How lovely of the mother-daughter duo to finally arrive!" The figure said, standing behind the altar in the sanctuary, strangling one of the guards with a pulsating whip of pitch black energy, the other two guards having been defeated already. The large sanctuary was very dimly lit, only being illuminated by a few very bright colourful lights, four to be exact sitting atop the altar with both Aurelie and the figure staring directly at them.

"Wouldn't it be a shame if someone were to blow these out?" The figure wondered aloud as she placed her hands onto the altar, inhaling in a breath as if getting ready to blow out the candles.

"You aren't powerful enough to do such a thing. Only something bearing pure, untainted magic mixed your rotten magic can do something like that." Aurelie declared as she cautiously took a step forward.

"Something bearing pure untainted magic, because pure magic turned dark is of course much stronger than plain old dark magic correct?" The figure asked," So maybe something like, a wand or a brooch or even a book..."

The figure conjured up the vial of black liquid that had previously been Ana's book,"...Perhaps that shall do the trick."

"No!" Ana and Aurelie shouted in unison, with the latter running at break neck speed towards the altar. The figure poured the liquid into it's mouth and was about to blow the candles out, but Aurelie swiped the candles from the altar. Aurelie was now standing on top of the altar, with all the candles in her hands.

"I won't ever let you dim out the flames from these lights, the four Everlasting Lights of Cheer!" Aurelie decreed, just before the figure yanked at her feet and made her fall.

"How can they be so everlasting if all it takes is one corrupted shred of magic to dim them out?" The figure asked as it neared uncomfortably close to Aurelie. Aurelie tried squirming back and just before the figure moved again, Aurelie called to Ana while throwing all the candles,

"Take them and run!"

Ana caught all of the candles and ran as fast as she possibly could, with the figure trailing towards her within seconds. Ana hid behind a tree and lost her for a moment, catching her breath and looking down at the candles nervously. The candles then floated out of her hands for a moment and together they had created another candle that was, pink, blue, silver, gold and white in colour. Just then, the figure found Ana and scared her so badly she fell to her feet.

"Th-these aren't for blowing out you know, and my mom's going to be really mad if you-"

"Too late for that." The figure claimed as it took a deep breath and blew out the candles right in front of Ana.

"No way," Ana gasped out desolately as she looked at the environment around her. Things were looking just fine a few moments ago but now, without the candles, everything would fall to pieces from here on out.

"Now that you have no need for them, hand them over." The figure instructed as she held out her hand. Ana just kept staring her down, without moving an inch.

"I said hand them over!" The figure demanded, startling Ana so badly that she nearly lost grip of the candles. Just then, the group of snakes from before shot out from the figure forearms and impulsively, Ana threw the four candles up into the air. Once the candles were launched into the air, they vanished into thin air.

"They're gone..." The of two of them said together as they stared up at the sky.

"It's fine, if you've sent them away somewhere, then rest assured, they will be found. But for now, it seems my work here is done. Oh I mean..." The figure noticed the final candle under Ana's hand and gravitated it away from Ana and into her grip.

"Never mind, I'm done here." The figure declared as Ana tried to reach out for that last candle before the figure disappeared.

Ana stared off in to space, unsure of what was going to happen now, and how irreversible the damage could be. She hugged her body, the air feeling a whole lot colder to her now as she watched clouds form over her head, when Euphorium hadn't seen a cloud in years. This was likely Ana's first time ever seeing a cloud, and before Ana could ponder anymore on the thought, she heard Aurelie calling for her.

"Ana, where are the-?"

"I couldn't keep that person from blowing them out, in the end I couldn't save them..." Ana replied dejectedly before coming to a realization," But _you_ can! You were a Pretty Cure, Cure Jubilance, you can fix everything like you did when you were-!"

"Emiliana I can't-! I...I'm much too old now, my magic as Cure Jubilance has run out. I think it's time we elect new Pretty Cure to restore the flames to the four Everlasting Lights of Cheer and destroy the thing I left behind many years ago." Aurelie decided as she took a deep breath.

Ana interrogated curiously,"Then, where are we going to find the Pretty Cure? Are they going to be here in Euphorium or are they going to be in that-?"

"Yes, yes they shall be in _that_ place as with Euphorium getting ready to fall to shambles without those lights, we won't have anyone suitable to take up the roles of Pretty Cure to save Euphorium and _that_ world as well in due time." Aurelie answered with much haste," However, we aren't leaving Euphorium, I actually know just who to entrust with this task who happens to be in the human world right now..."


	2. Here she comes, Cure Joy!

Sitting at a table within the kitchen of a reasonably large home was a girl with deep pink hair that parted into three sections; two of these sections being held up by sunflower hair clips and the rest falling to the middle of her back while the lower half over her nags were dipped-dyed blonde. With her eyes narrowed down at the toast sitting on her plate, she heard what sounded like two or three, she couldn't tell at this early hour with her brain barely functioning as normal, voices that sounded like they belonged to young boys. What they were yelling about was beyond her and all she could do at this moment was wonder if she had enough time to get a second breakfast at her school's cafeteria, knowing that today's two slices of toast weren't going to leave her full for long. She then took a sip from the bottle of chocolate milk beside her plate and after one drop, she realized she ran out.

"I should probably get more chocolate milk with that second breakfast..."

"Gogo! Haven't you been listening to me?" A voice then shouted from the other side of the kitchen. The girl, Gogo, then looked up, watching the person who called out for her pack four lunches. The person was a woman who looked very much like Gogo with the deep burgundy hair, although hers was wrapped tight in a bun with a little chunk of it worn loose under the bun and she appeared to be much older.

"Come again?" Gogo asked with a very large yawn following after.

"I have to work late tomorrow so be prepared to buy things for tomorrow night's dinner if I don't make it to the grocery store today!" The woman said.

"Mom I need money for these kind of luxuries you know..." Gogo pointed out as she rested her hand curled into a fist against her cheek.

Gogo's mother reached into her wallet sitting on the edge of the counter and pulled out enough to cover the groceries and a little extra.

"You can buy lunch tomorrow as well." Gogo's mother declared as she laid the money out in front of Gogo. Gogo nodded in approval and just then, a male voice was shouting from outside,

"Ayami we've got ten minutes to get to work!"

Gogo's mother then shrieked and then dropped the four lunches in front of Gogo, each of them labeled and stacked on top of each other.

"Give the boys their lunch, and don't forget yours!" Gogo's mother instructed as she ran out of the house, but nod before Gogo and the three little boys said bye to them.

"Alright," Gogo began as she pushed her plate to the center of the table and placed the three lunches into their respective bags beside the kitchen table," Who's ready for school?"

Two of the boys said "not me" and the third said "not yet". Gogo then knelt down to look the three of them in the eyes.

"Well, Reo and Ryu, you two don't actually have a choice." Gogo explained briefly as she gave the two of them their backpacks.

"Don't pretend to mix us up." The shorter of the two, Reo, grumbled as he took his bag from Gogo.

"And Mom says you gotta take your plate to the sink." Ryu, the eldest of the three boys reminded Gogo as he stuck his tongue out at her.

"But I can't go to school yet Gogo!" The youngest brother, Satoru wailed frantically in a voice loud enough to alarm the three of them.

"And why's that?" Gogo asked as she crouched even lower to look Satoru in the eyes.

"He can't find his new figure." Reo explained.

"And you looked everywhere?" Gogo inquired as Satoru started to blink back tears.

"He's gone Gogo! I don't know where to look anymore!" Satoru shouted, startling Ryu and Reo again.

"Oh, don't worry, I'm sure he's somewhere around here." Gogo reassured assured as she stood up straight, with her hands on hips," Alright men, let's search for our missing warrior, Raiden Arataka!"

"Yeah!" The three of them shouted in unison.

Later, after Satoru's figure had been found, Gogo found herself running to school after she dropped the boys off to their elementary school.

"Of course, why am I not surprised that Satoru's stupid figure was under his bed?!" Gogo shouted angrily as she ran down the street," And to think, I could've got a second breakfast today. And I now I'm really gonna need it!"

Just before Gogo could rant anymore, she collided with someone on the street.

"Why don't you watch where you're going?" Gogo muttered as she rubbed the back of her head tenderly, her eyes tightly.

"What about you? You practically came out of nowhere!" The other person shouted. Gogo opened her eyes and saw a girl with bright blonde hair and tan skin, giving her quite the glare as if Gogo was the one at fault, who according to the blonde was.

Gogo then noticed she had on the same school uniform as her and said," If you go to Nakagawa, then why are you going the opposite direction?"

"I left my English homework and my kneepads at home!" The girl responded as she sprung to her feet, offering her hand to Gogo, who gingerly took it," I live right around the block, so I can just run home and get them before school starts.

"You got like three minutes." Gogo pointed out and she looked at her watch.

"Then I've got no time to waste!" The girl declared before sprinting off into the other direction," Okada Masumi, and you?"

"You just said you had no time to-! Mitsugi Gogo." Gogo said before sprinting into the other direction.

"I'll see you around!" Masumi said before she ran out.

"Weirdo." Gogo commented as Masumi came out of earshot," Wait, I gotta get to class!"

 _"Why was I so willing to get to class on time? It's not like we're doing anything important."_ Gogo thought to herself as she burrowed her head into her folded arms on her desk. Currently, Literature class had just begun and the last thing Gogo felt like doing was participating in a discussion about the book they had been reading when she hadn't read a single word from it in two weeks. She had been too busy to even pick it up these days, being busy in all her other classes. Literature was a class she had considered to be of low priority, thinking if she could just read the entire book before their big final essay on it, she'd be alright.

"Anyone else want to voice their opinions in regards to the themes of respect and trust within these last few chapters?" The Literature teacher, Ms. Hightower asked, with a few hands shooting up quick from a few students in the front row.

"I want to hear from someone I don't usually hear from..." Ms. Hightower declared as she scanned the room," How about you Miss Kemuri?"

The girl with lemon-yellow hair shot her head up and neutrally said," I apologize Ms. Hightower, I was working on homework for another class."

"So shouldn't you be doing it in that class?" Ms. Hightower suggested, with the girl putting away her notebook into her desk and reaching for her literature notebook.

"Ok, Miss Mitsugi!" Ms Hightower called out, with Gogo looking at her as alert as humanely possible while clenching the pencil in her hand," What are you thoughts on the subject?"

"I...I uh..." Gogo trailed off, pretending she had yet to notice the mass of stares stares coming her way as she shrunk a little in her seat,"...I don't know sorry."

"You just can't put your thoughts into words because they're so complex and dexterous, correct?" Ms Hightower asked in a rather sarcastic manner.

Gogo panicked a little as she heard some snickers across the room, causing her to slump lower into her seat as she said,"I just didn't read this last chapter."

Ms Hightower side-eyed Gogo and turned her attention to another student, one who had actually been paying attention to the class discussion. Gogo rolled her eyes and started doodling a somewhat demonic looking caricature of Ms Hightower in her notebook.

By lunch, Gogo found herself eating in her classroom with only a few students huddled around a pair of desk pushed together in the room. It was a nice day so most kids in her class decided to have lunch outside. The few students were a group of girls, talking about things like homework and their lives outside of school. As much as Gogo wanted to, she couldn't find herself able to tune this out as easily as her brothers' shouting, due to the fact that she didn't really have anyone else to talk to at school. So listening in and hearing about the lives of her fellow classmates, even if it was for a few moments, would had to suffice and make for that absence of communication with others for now.

Gogo stared at the half-full bottle of chocolate milk she bought ten minutes ago, still listening to the girls' conversation.

 _"It's been two months into the new school year, maybe..."_ Gogo thought to herself as she picked up the chocolate milk bottle and looked over to the window a few feet away from her seat _,"...I should try talking to Taeko soon..."_

"Oh yeah, that reminds me, you guys aren't going to believe this but...I bumped in Akimichi yesterday after school! You know, he was in our class in middle school last year!" One of the girls exclaimed.

"No way!" Another of them gasped," I heard he got a girlfriend though, and now we don't even get to see him anymore..."

"So this is what girls my age will do after prolonged years of friendship; talk about old times and old crushes." Gogo observed as she sipped on her chocolate milk," Maybe I should do some of this stuff with Taeko..."

Watching the girls talk openly like this, as if there wasn't any else in the room, was admittingly entertaining for Gogo. It was as if she was a part of their conversation without actually being a part of it. As Gogo watched the girls laugh and share their snacks with each other Gogo sighed quietly while looking away for a couple of moments.

 _"I wonder if those girls actually like doing that kinda stuff..."_ Gogo wondered as she looked at the group with her head on top of her folded arms on the desk.

"So, Touka, is it true?" One of the girls said suddenly," Did you really ask out Mikio through a love letter?"

"W-wha-? No, it wasn't a love letter, I mean-!" The girl stammered out while her friends started laughing at her.

 _"You know what, never mind..."_ Gogo thought to herself as the girls continued to laugh.

It had been two months since the school year had began, and it wasn't just any school year for Gogo, it was her first year of high-school. Which allegedly meant new friends and new experiences and, a whole bunch of other things that Gogo refused to think about as of right now. Basically, it was a whole new chapter to her life, but despite a few differences like a new set of classmates and a new uniform, almost everything felt the same.

As Gogo watched the girls continue to talk amongst themselves, she ended deciding to work on some drawings in the corners of her notebook as she put in her headphones to distract herself from the girls and their conversation.

 _"I have better things to do anyways, I guess."_ Gogo thought to herself as she started drawing things like flowers sprouting from the bottom of her page and bolts of lighting underneath a rain cloud.

Later after class, it was club time and Gogo was inside the girls locker room putting on her gym uniform. After she was fully dressed in her gym clothes, she neatly folded her uniform and placed it into her bag. As she inserted her uniform into the bag, she heard a few of her other club-mates chatting amongst themselves.

"I hope Chitose doesn't make up run ten laps around the track as warm-up today." One girl whined as she stretched her arms," My legs were sore for three days after that!"

"She's insane, so insane that I wanna ditch this club now but...every time I mention it in front of her..." One of the girls trailed off.

"She gives you those puppy dog eyes too right?" The other girl questioned before groaning," Chitose's so cruel but, I can't turn her down when she does that!"

"If one of us quits..." Gogo said to herself quietly while continuing to observe the girls," Then this club will be have to disband because we have a bare minimum of club members. And that means despite not even being fond of this track club...I'm stuck here too."

Today's club activities weren't as harsh as last weeks, so the girls were as badly drained of their energy like last time. The club was pretty inclusive, but not many people wanted to join because of either already belonging to another club or they just didn't want to. Not a lot of girls at the school seemed to have been interested and it was hard for the club president, Chitose to round up all of her club members. Most joined because the clubs they wanted to join were full, others genuinely wanted to be here and then there was Gogo, who joined upon the recommendation of the student council president.

By now, most people at the club knew each other, and they all got fairly close, but there were a few members who chose to keep to themselves; Gogo being one of those people. Somehow, the members of this club kinda struck Gogo as boring. They all did. But they did at least seem like nice people, Gogo just didn't have interest in socializing with them.

After club was over, Gogo quickly threw her uniform back on and started looking through her phone to see if she had missed any texts or emails.

Three girls who were in Gogo's homeroom had just finished changing and were currently planning to head out to get something to eat after their club session.

"Should we still go to that crepe place today Hanami?" One of them asked as she laced her hands behind her head.

"Hm, Michi, do you think we should invite her to come with us today?" Hanami asked as she looked towards Gogo," She is in our homeroom."

"Mitsugi? I guess, though she doesn't seem like the type to take detours after club." Michi remarked as she glanced over to Gogo.

"But, she seems kinda...alone." Hanami pointed out as she watched Gogo scroll through her texts. The two girls started paying close attention to Gogo as they watched her idly read a text on her phone. The two of them were quick to notice the distress appearing in Gogo's eyes as they widened greatly as she started to dial a number. As she held the phone to her ear, she dashed out of the change room, her shoes barely on her feet and her gym uniform left on the bench in the change room. Hanami took the bag sitting on the bench and called out to Gogo,

"Um, Mitsugi-!"

"Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow too!" Gogo shouted back to her as she waved her free hand to her.

Hanami stared down at the bag in her hands and glanced over to Michi as she tried to think of what to do.

"We'll just give it back to her tomorrow." Michi dismissed as she walked out of the change room, with Hanami following after her.

"But Mom! I had club today, of course I couldn't have seen that message after school!" Gogo complained into the phone as she ran down the street," Wait what? Hinari walked them home? Oh man, I guess I owe her big time for that. Not to mention..."

Gogo had stopped running for a few moments now, barely able to catch her breath as she looked at her brothers' elementary school now in front of her.

"...I ran all the way here."

Gogo hung up on her mom and just further down the road, sighing loudly as she did so.

"I guess I can just buy the groceries for dinner now." Gogo decided as she started to walk slowly to the convenience store down the road. As Gogo walked, the sun was starting to set, slowly but surely. Less and less students were crossing her path and the streets were getting much quieter now.

"Why couldn't she just text me at lunch to tell me I had to make dinner tonight?" Gogo moaned as she continued to walk down the street.

Meanwhile at the convenience store's parking lot, the girl Gogo had bumped this morning, Masumi, was sitting on the curb and munching on chocolate Pocky sticks. This had been her third box this afternoon. Once she had finished eating from it, she threw it to the side like the two boxes she had before. When she was finished with her little Pocky banquet, she wrapped her arms around her knees, regretting it in an instant after she felt a stinging sensation on them.

"That's hurting worse than before..." Masumi cringed as she stretched out her legs. The skinned knee only felt like a minor issue before, considering she was too busy this afternoon with try-outs for the volleyball team. Despite playing as hard as she could, she didn't preform as well as the other girls and the team captains seemed very much uninterested in having her on the team. It was hard to play dumb when she watched the captains give praise to girls who were older than her, girls who in her grade that she never even met before try-outs.

"I wasn't holding back..." Masumi said to herself in reassurance,"...Was I?" All of a sudden, a pale, slender figure caught Masumi's eye and she turned around to see who it was. The figure disappeared, but Masumi was still curious, so she followed it in the direction she saw it head to.

Masumi walked to the other side of the convenience store and located there was Ms. Hightower standing before a set of toy vending machine.

"Why is Ms. Hightower collecting gashapon...?" Masumi wondered as she continued to observe Ms. Hightower from the corner of the convenience store.

"Let's find out." A voice said behind Masumi. Masumi spun around in panic and appearing in the sky out of nowhere was a girl who seemed to be in her mid-teens with fair skin, grey hair that went just past her shoulder and ice cold celadon coloured eyes. She worn a sleeveless black, white and purple dress that went to her knees and violet boots worn over purple and black striped socks. She also had grey and violet fingerless gloves that reached her forearms and lastly, a deep violet hair band with an even deeper violet diamond on the side of it.

"You have the first candle, the Candle of Intrigue, don't you?" The girl asked, her voice as cold as the expression on her face.

Ms. Hightower only scrutinized the girl in front of her and turned her head away in slight disgust, saying," I apologize, but I think you've got the wrong person. See you never."

"Alright, well fine. I'll let you go, but only if you show me what's inside your bag." The girl proposed. Masumi looked over to Ms. Hightower warily, the older woman simply scoffing and continuing to walk.

"I don't need to show off what inside my bag to a snot-nosed punk like you. I don't even know your name! Now if you'll excuse me I've got dinner to-" Ms. Hightower cut herself off once she had bumped into something and fell onto the pavement. The girl had materialized a muted purple barrier surrounding herself, Ms. Hightower and Masumi.

"I'm getting that candle today no matter what." The girl declared as she walked closer towards Ms. Hightower, And the name's Onyx."

"Hey, I don't have anything to do with this, so are you keeping me here?" Masumi questioned nervously. Onyx turned around to face Masumi with a somewhat wicked grin carved onto her face.

"You won't have anything to do with this for long..." Onyx snickered as she conjured up a small black star with a frowning face on it between her fingers while holding one of Masumi's empty Pocky boxes in the other hand," Endopath, turn her cheer into absolute fear!"

The black star appear in front of Masumi, multiplied and one went straight inside of Masumi while the other merged with the Pocky box.

"Endopath!" The monsterfied Pocky box roared, breaking the barrier as it did so.

"Joke's on you, I get to leave now." Ms. Hightower said with a snicker as she rose to her feet.

"You wouldn't leave this poor innocent girl in danger, would you?" Onyx asked as she waved her hand over in Masumi's direction.

"I screwed up! I'm not gonna make the team! All my efforts will have been for nothing because I held back and...and it's all my fault!" Masumi exasperated frantically.

"Your Queen didn't want this happen, correct?" Onyx asked.

Gogo rummaged through her pockets as she reached the convenience store, feeling some loose change jingle around as she wondered to herself," Did I save enough money to buy groceries?"

Suddenly Gogo heard the roar of the Endopath and stopped fishing through her pockets, her heart beating in alarm as she looked up and saw what appeared to be a thirty foot Pocky box on the other side of the convenience store.

"On second thought, cereal doesn't sound like a bad idea for dinner..." Gogo said to herself before sprinting in the opposite direction.

"I just said, you can't have the bag!" Gogo heard a voice shout.

"Hey, that sounded like...Ms. Hightower." Gogo thought to herself as she walked over slowly to the store. Gogo looked towards the other side of the convenience store, not able to make out anything except the cries from the Pocky box monster and more shouting from Ms. Hightower. Should she get involved? It seemed like a rigorous, maybe even life-threatening task, but...if there was a chance that someone she knew, her own homeroom teacher, being in danger, she probably wouldn't have been able to live with the guilt of knowing that she could've done something. So, without further question what to do, Gogo quickly darted to the other side of the convenience store, seeing Ms. Hightower getting harassed by a girl who appeared to her age, clutching on to her teacher's bag and Masumi staring down at the ground helplessly.

"Mitsugi? What are you doing, get out of here!" Ms. Hightower shouted as she tried pulling her bag away from Onyx.

"I think a better question would be, what are you doing?" Gogo asked before an alarm went off on her phone," Oh would you look at that, it's six already..."

"Oh no..." Ms. Hightower said quickly as she tried one last pull from the grey-haired girl.

"Oh yes..." Onyx said as that wicked grin reappeared on her face as Ms. Hightower shaped-shifted into what appeared to be a bunny wearing a cupcake hair clip on one ear.

"What is that...?" Gogo cringed as she looked at the bunny in the place of Ms. Hightower. The bunny wasn't able to put up as good of a fight as Ms. Hightower and within an instant, Onyx yanked the bag out of the bunny's grasp.

"Mitsugi, you gotta get out of here, or at least help me get that bag back!" The bunny, who appeared to be Ms. Hightower cried.

Gogo nodded and immediately ran over towards Onyx, who leapt up high into the sky, standing on a telephone pole as she searched the bag for the candle.

"Got it!" Onyx rejoiced as she held the candle up high, only to nearly have it fall out from her hands as she found herself wobbling on top of the phone pole.

"You need to get that thing away from her!" Ms. Hightower instructed as Gogo kicked the phone pole.

"Ugh, time to use this thing." Onyx declared as she leapt off the phone pole and in front of Gogo.

Onyx held the candle in front of Gogo and Gogo panicked as she took steps backwards, unsure of what else she could do. She then tripped and fell on her behind, with Onyx pointing the candle in front of her face.

"The world's really out for me today..." Gogo said quietly to herself, her terrified gaze on Onyx.

"Ignite." Onyx commanded in a low voice. But, the candle wouldn't light up, which really ruined Onyx's moment. Once Gogo realized there wasn't really anything to be afraid, she stood up slowly.

"What's going on?" Onyx muttered to herself as she flailed the candle around inquisitively.

"Don't you know better, your weak feelings of animosity couldn't ever light one of the Everlasting candles of Cheer." Ms. Hightower explained to her in a snide voice.

"Then what the hell does?" Onyx questioned in irritation as she glowered towards Ms. Hightower.

"Hey, uh, why did you have to hijack Ms. Hightower's bag to get that? Wouldn't it have been easier to ask?" Gogo asked Onyx," I mean, it seemed like it would've been big trouble if it got into the wrong hands but since it didn't..."

"I'll light this stupid candle up and when I do, I'm burning you to a crisp!" Onyx threatened as she waved the candle in front of Gogo," And after that, I'll drain the cheer and happiness out of everyone! You'll all be living the rest your miserable lives like that girl forever!"

Gogo looked a little apprehensive as she saw Masumi staring at the ground in hopelessness.

"Why would you want to do something like that...?" Gogo asked as she stared at the candle in Onyx's hands.

"Happiness is pointless, a lost cause. Just the thought of happy people gives me a migraine. I hope all happiness can be erased by me and only me. It's a misfortune that I would never wish upon another. A world without happy people would be a dream come true."

"I don't know what made you so bitter but..." Gogo began,"...Unlike you, people actually like being happy. It isn't a misfortune or a tragedy or anything like that. So, happiness can't always last as long as we want, and sometimes, we unintentionally make each other unhappy." Gogo looked towards Ms. Hightower and Masumi

But...I wouldn't want to bring misery those who made me unhappy in the first place and I don't my happiness to be erased, and I don't want the happiness of others to be erased..." Gogo immediately thought of her brothers and her classmates as she said that," So, I don't think your dream can come true and, I think you should give that candle thing back to my teacher, or what's left of my teacher."

"Please, with this, I can manipulate hearts and minds alike, I can reap out those insufferable feelings of joy that come and go whenever they please and I can leave what will never disappear; complete and pure despair." Onyx proclaimed as she swung around the candle.

Gogo then reminded her, "But, didn't she just tell you that you can't activate it-"

"I may not be able to use this candle yet, but in the meantime, I have these." Onyx declared as she conjured up a few more of those tiny black stars," And I'm about to make you my next host!"

"Mitsugi, don't let those things touch you!" Ms. Hightower advised as Gogo began to run.

"Could this day get any weirder?" Gogo wailed as she began to dodge the black stars.

"Why are you just standing around, go get her!" Onyx commanded the Endopath. The Endopath started chasing after Gogo and within a few moments, it had her in it's grasp. Gogo silently cursed herself for getting captured and tried to fight her way out of the Endopath's grip.

"What good will it even bring you to try and steal other people's happiness? Wouldn't that make you feel bad?" Gogo reasoned as she writhed around the Endopath's grip.

"Are you kidding me? The misfortune of others is my greatest pleasure!" Onyx answered as the Endopath's clutch tightened as Onyx readied herself to fling a star at Gogo.

"Fine, go on. Try and make everyone sad. Try and spoil everyone's day, clearly I can't convince you otherwise. But, even if you try and make others sad, I won't let you try and take my happiness, and you know what, I'm going to use every inch of my power to keep you from trying to steal anyone else's happiness. Wanna know why, because it's their happiness and you don't get a say in whether or not they get to keep it and I won't stand for any of this any longer!"

A ray of light had emerged out from Gogo, a light so bright and hot that it forced the Endopath to let go of Gogo, who was floating in midair, being held up by the lights.

"Mitsugi, take this!" Ms. Hightower instructed as she threw a locket inside the capsule ball from before.

"What is this thing doing? Stop pulling me towards her!" Onyx shouted as she held onto the candle as tight as she could. Ultimately, the candle was repelled out of her grasp and launched itself into Gogo's other hand.

In Gogo's hand, the candle had began to flicker a bright yellow and magenta flame.

"Mitsugi, set the locket under the flame!" Ms. Hightower instructed," Then yell, Pretty Cure, Turn that frown upside down!"

"And I thought this day couldn't get any weirder..." Gogo said to herself as she did as told, setting flame to the locket, turning the originally pearly white locket yellow, orange and pink.

She then held up the locket and shouted,

"Pretty Cure, Turn that frown upside down!"


	3. I have magical powers?

Gogo soon found herself inside an ambient, shimmery pale yellow void. It all seemed so surreal, not a single sound could be heard and there wasn't a single person aside from her here. Although she seemed initially doubtful, those feelings began to wash themselves away as she clothes were sparkling immensely, as was the rest of her body. She then held the locket up very high and tri-beam of glimmering yellow, orange and magenta light came flowing out from it. Gogo was given a new dress in the place of her school uniform that was a pale yellow with puffy 'cold shoulder' sleeves that were adorned with little gold beads at the ends. The dress also had bells at her waist and many pink frills at the bottom. Placed onto her feet were a pair of pale shoes with a smiley face at the top of them and the bottom of her back, a large orange bow appeared. Her hands were then sleeved into a pair of yellow fingerless gloves that reached her forearms and finally, her hair was part in two pairs of twin tails and turned bright pink, orange and yellow with a gold crown that had a pink smiling face nestling into her hair. She then snapped a bow appeared on the center of her dress, another pink smiling face appearing on the center of the bow. She then opened her eyes, revealing them to now be pink instead of brown and placed her hands on her hips.

"A warm ray of sunshine to brighten up your day, Cure Joy!" She introduced.

"That's what will bring light to the candles." Ms. Hightower said to Onyx in a wry voice as she pointed to Cure Joy.

Onyx rolled her eyes and declared," Either way, she won't stand a a chance against my Endopath, this is going to be her and her last battle."

The Endopath roared and dashed over towards Joy, taking steps so loud that Joy was startled from the sound of them. Nervously, Joy took a step backwards, and eyed the Endopath curiously as she waited for it to make it's next move.

"What can I do to knock this thing off it's feet?" Joy thought to herself as she stared at the Endopath.

Suddenly, the Endopath swung at her and instinctively, Joy leapt up, not realizing how high she was going to jump as she did that. When she looked down, the Endopath, Onyx, and Ms. Hightower seemed almost microscopic from down below.

"Holy crow, how the hell did I get so high up?!" Joy shouted as she grabbed the highest branch on a rather tall tree beside her.

"Your powers have awakened and now you've been granted the strength to preform feats like this!" Ms. Hightower shouted to her.

Joy clung harder onto the tree, shouting down to her," I didn't quite get tha-!'

The tree's branch sounded as if it was about to break off, which seemed likely granted how brittle this part of the branch was.

"It's comes with the dress!" Ms. Hightower shouted with a sigh following after.

"This was a such a dumb idea, I can't do this, I don't really even know what I'm supposed to do!" Joy griped as she squeezed her her eyes shut while clinging onto the branch," But, it won't to me any good to just sit in a tree."

"Let's see..." Joy said as she evaluated the land below her,"...Masumi hasn't been looking so good since I've been here. So maybe she's somehow connected to that thing. It seems almost as if, that thing is leeching off her, but...what exactly is it taking away from her?"

The branch start to crack again and Joy clutched on even tighter as her heart skipped a beat," I don't have all that much time to think about this, but one thing's for certain, that thing and Masumi are connected somehow and that has to mean there must be some kind of weak spot on it, something to make it stop leeching off Masumi..."

The Endopath looked over towards Onyx for guidance of what next to do. As it turned around, Joy noticed something suspicious on it's back.

"Do I always need to direct you to what you're supposed to do? Go get her out of the that tree now so I can implant one of these into her!" Onyx demanded as she held out a small collection of the black stars from before in her hand.

The Endopath nodded and walked over to the tree where Joy was and found that she wasn't there. Onyx squinted at the tree to check and see if Joy was still in the tree. With no sign of her, Onyx was about to go up into the tree herself to scope out the pink-haired Cure but just then, she heard a voice shout,

"Over here!"

Joy was now standing on top of the convenience store and was staring directly at the Endopath.

"What are you waiting for, go get her right this instant!" Onyx commanded impatiently as she pointed towards Joy. The Endopath did as told again and hastily darted over towards Joy while swinging it's arm up in a mildly clumsy manner. Joy hopped up, this time making sure she wouldn't launch herself up higher than intended and landed on the Endopath's arm. She sprinted down the Endopath's and the Endopath tried swatting her away and shaking her off, though every time she did manage to get thrown off her balance and fall, she found herself holding on to the Endopath's arm and hoisting herself back up.

"Why is she...?" Onyx trailed off, her eyes enlarging in realization upon figuring out what Joy was after," Endopath, don't let her get to your-!"

"Joyous heel smash!" Joy screamed as she drove her foot into the black star behind the Endopath, creating a small crack in it that let a dark aura seep through it in the process.

The Endopath seemed much weaker now, unable to stand on it's on two feet as it dropped onto it's knees in defeat with Joy jumping off of it.

"Cure Joy, now's your chance to purify it!" Ms. Hightower instructed as she pointed to the Endopath.

"But I thought I just did..." Joy responded as she wiped off her heel against the ground.

"Not just yet! Focus and try to channel all your energy into your hands to purify it.' Ms. Hightower explained," Then let your instincts take over!"

"How's that supposed to work?" Joy asked under her breath with her eyes narrowed. She shook her head and decided to do as instructed.

With her eyes shut tight, she tried concentrating her powers into her hands and gradually, felt power radiating from them.

Onyx looked at her with a near apprehensive look in her face, trying to compose herself as she aimed a star towards the Endopath, in hopes of reversing the damage that Joy caused.

"Pretty Cure, Brilliant Elation!" Joy shouted as the area around them turn a pale yellow in mid-sentence. Onyx threw a star at the Endopath, but it got singed once it came in contact with the yellow barrier created by Joy.

"Watch your back, Cure Joy." Onyx said, knowing the outcome of this battle had already been decided as she disappeared.

The Endopath was met with a swarm of bright yellow, pink and orange lights that had disintegrated the black star and turned the Endopath back into a regular empty Pocky box.

In the place of the shattered black star was a white little charm with a smiling face engraved onto it that looked identical to the pendant Joy had before she set it under the flame.

"Uh, should I keep this?" Joy asked as she picked up the white charm and eyed it curiously.

"It'll become handy soon enough so I suggest you do." Ms. Hightower commented, causing Joy to look at her suspiciously.

"Implying that I'll have to do this again?" Joy questioned before realizing that Masumi had returned to normal and was looking greatly confused as to what just happened. Joy rushed to her side, de-transforming and turning back into Gogo.

"Did I pass out?" Masumi asked as she held her head.

"Hey, Okada, um...yeah I think you did. When I got over here, I saw you out cold on the ground here. Are you feeling alright?" Gogo asked.

"Yeah for the most part... I was just really upset about messing up during try-outs for the volleyball team today." Masumi explained, catching Gogo off-guard.

"Well damn, she's being way more open than I expected. What do I do now?" Gogo thought to herself.

So, Gogo asked in a somewhat awkward voice," Why do you think you messed up?"

Masumi then sighed as she answered saying," I don't think I did my best and I also got intimidated by a few of the older girls. I just feel so disappointed in myself right now..."

"So. damn. honest." Gogo said in her head as she felt herself beginning to perspire," You don't know if you didn't make the team right? And even if you don't that's ok, I mean, I don't think that could let someone like you want to give up, am I right?"

"I guess, but...what makes you say that?" Masumi questioned, with Gogo internally panicking even more as she tried stringing together a good enough answer for Masumi.

Gogo searched her mind for some kind of evidence to back up this claim as hard as she could and finally, it came to her.

"You didn't let forgetting your kneepads at home keep you from trying out, and despite seeing all the older girls there, you still went out and played right?" Gogo reminded her, with Masumi nodding slowly in response," So, even if you don't make the team, it'll be fine! You can find some other place that will appreciate your passion and determination to play! And when you find that place, I'll...watch your first game ok?"

Masumi smiled and nodded in agreement enthusiastically, collecting her bag and standing with Gogo following suit.

"I'll see you tomorrow in class ok?" Masumi said as she began to walk home," Bye Gogo!"

"Wait, in class?" Gogo asked while waving back," Wait, did she just call me...Gogo?"

"That is your name, isn't Mitsugi?" Ms. Hightower asked as she hopped over towards Gogo. Gogo knelt down towards the bunny and stared at it with a blank look on her face for a few moments. Ms. Hightower looked evidently uncomfortable by this stare and stared back at Gogo nervously.

Gogo then quickly grabbed her and started pulling at her cheeks inn suspicion, the blank look still on her face. Ms Hightower started yelling at Gogo to stop and Gogo continued to pry at her.

"I'll fail you on your next test if you don't put me down!" Ms. Hightower declared loudly as Gogo pulled at her ear to see if she was a real animal and not some sort of stuffed animatronic .

"You're already failing me." Gogo reminded her in a bratty voice as she put Ms. Hightower down. Gogo stared at her long and hard, feeling more and more weirded out as she did so.

"To think my homeroom teacher, the teacher with long pale blonde hair and teal eyes that the boys in my class fawn over..." Gogo began in her head as she pictured Ms. Hightower in her normal appearance. She then looked down at the present Ms. Hightower before her.

 _"...Is actually a rabbit. A rabbit who wears a cupcake hair- I mean, ear...clip."_ Gogo thought to herself as she picked up Ms. Hightower, who started shouting again.

"Just where do you think you're taking me to?" Ms. Hightower interrogated in irritation as Gogo stuffed her inside her bag.

"You've got some explaining that needs to be done. A lot of explaining." Gogo replied as she walked into the convenience store to finally get what she originally came here for.

"Can't we do this at my place?" Ms. Hightower reasoned, with Gogo laughing somewhat bitterly in response.

"It's getting late and I haven't even bought groceries yet to make dinner tonight. Plus, I don't think I'll fit in your rabbit hole."

"I don't live in a rabbit h-" Ms. Hightower was interrupted as Gogo stuffed her deeper in the bag to get her to stop talking. After Gogo bought the groceries, went home to make dinner and finished doing so, only then did she get the chance to let Ms. Hightower explain herself.

"Wow Gogo, you're even busier than I imagined." Ms. Hightower remarked as Gogo came into her bedroom after making dinner for the boys.

Gogo then pointed a finger to her and imperatively said," Don't do that."

"What?" Ms. Hightower asked with look of confusion worn over her face.

"I'm not comfortable with...that." Gogo admitted, sounding a little quiet as she adverted her gaze from Ms. Hightower. Ms. Hightower caught on and remained quiet until Gogo sat on the bed. She sat opposite of her and awaited Ms. Hightower to speak.

"So..." Gogo began unsurely.

"So..." Ms. Hightower repeated.

"What was that?" Gogo asked, her teacher still not saying anything yet," All of that? How did I do...how was I able to do all of that?"

"Give me your smiling locket for a second."

"My what?"

"The necklace." Ms. Hightower restated as she pointed to the pink pendant slung around Gogo's neck. Gogo gently took off the necklace and handed it to Ms. Hightower, who inspected it very carefully while Gogo patiently waited for an answer from her.

"It's pretty, isn't it?" Ms. Hightower said as she held it up to the light, with some avail to make it glisten.

Gogo slowly nodded in response as she looked at the pendant, while also noticing the great admiration that could be seen in Ms. Hightower's eyes.

"But, it's just a necklace, it's just a cheap trinket or whatever right? I mean-"

"-That's where you're wrong Mitsugi." Ms. Hightower quickly interjected," This necklace, holds great power, power that can only be awakened when those of strong, undying hope come in contact with it. These necklaces will give power to help restore a land very dear to me."

Ms. Hightower opened up the locket, revealing a small hologram of the land of Euphorium within it. The sight was something Gogo definitely didn't expect and so, she crouched closer towards it to get a better at it.

"Something tells me this place isn't very close by..." Gogo observed as she looked at the shiny castle in the center of the hologram.

"Worlds away is a beautiful, bright and joyous land called Euphorium. The land of Euphorium was an originally happy land, where everyone and everything lived in harmony with one another. However, it is as happy as it is mysterious, as this land is riddled with many enigmas though...most haven't realized this."

The hologram in the locket changed to the scene at the lakeside, with the dark figure rising out from the lake.

"One of the biggest enigmas being, how creatures like this can exist and be so powerful in a land overflowing with light." Ms. Hightower continued as the hologram zoomed in on the figure, not making it anymore distinguishable from before," She appeared within the lake and allegedly attacked the Queen's daughter Emiliana. Once that person did that, she rushed over to the sanctuary where the four Everlasting lights of Cheer were and blew them all out. And now, without these four lights..."

The hologram projected the current state of Euphorium, with grey clouds and bleak dark skies. It looked like it was night here, but, judging by the looks the inhabitants wore on their faces, it had definitely been like this longer than imagined."

"What was that creature, or person that blew out those candles?" Gogo asked as she stared into the hologram projecting from the locket.

Ms. Hightower took a rather long pause and finally said," She goes by the name of Castra. She calls herself the embodiment of anguish and misery, and she claims that there is truly no such thing as happiness."

"Is that why she blew out those candles?" Gogo asked as Ms. Hightower closed up the locket, while nodding in response.

"Those candles, those that can only be lit permanently by happiness, are what keep everything in order in Euphorium, without the candles...the people of Euphorium may lose hope soon enough. That is if Queen Aurelie is unable to pull herself together before that happens."

"But, we already lit up one candle," Gogo pointed out as she pulled out the Candle of Intrigue from her bag. It had taken on a form of a twisted branch with a pink orb in the center with it being hollow at the bottom ever since Gogo had transformed.

Ms. Hightower narrowed her eyes at her and flatly said," This isn't lit properly, you were only able to ignite it for a short while with your transformation."

"So then, what's going to light this thing up for good?" Gogo asked as she swung it around a bit, with her teacher gesturing her to stop.

Ms. Hightower cleared her throat and answered," When all the candles are assembled together, then chances are...they will probably light up."

"What do you mean by, probably?" Gogo asked as she poked Ms. Hightower with the candle.

"I mean I myself am not sure. Maybe it will, Maybe it won't. Maybe you'll need some other items to activate it's power fully, I'm not sure." Ms. Hightower rambled," I don't actually have as many answers as you think."

"Wait, so...finding these Purikura _isn't_ why you're here?" Gogo probed as she eyed Ms. Hightower.

Ms. Hightower remained silent again for a few moments straight and took a deep breath saying," No. I've been here for a while and for a whole different reason than finding the _Pretty Cure._ Anyways, you don't have to worry, you won't be alone for long and-"

"Oh. So I really do have to do this again." Gogo interrupted with a groan following after as she crashed onto her bed," Why does it have to be me? Couldn't you recruit a more...positive person?"

"So far, the candles haven't found anyone more positive than you. And that's really saying something." Ms. Hightower replied, with Gogo only setting her gaze to her for a few moments before switching it back to the ceiling above her.

"Did the candles ever consider that I might be too busy? That I might have others priorities?" Gogo interrogated as she held up the necklace," _That I might not be strong enough to do this?"_

Ms. Hightower's gaze fell to the side and she stayed quiet as she tried to think of some other way to persuade Gogo. Instead, Ms. Hightower just shook her head and said,

"Look, could you at least sleep on it? I have to know before they attack again." Ms. Hightower urged as she started looking towards the window in Gogo's room.

"By the way, who are they?" Gogo questioned as she started fidgeting with the chain the pendant was hooked onto.

"They go by Melancholy, but...that's all I know so far." Ms. Hightower debriefed as she hopped towards Gogo's window," I assume your parents are home now so-"

"Nope. Parents won't be here until ten-thirty and the boys are in their rooms, so if you'd rather not jump out a window..." Gogo trailed off as she stepped off of her bed and walked over to her bedroom door, holding it out for Ms. Hightower.

"Uh, thanks..." Ms. Hightower said stiffly," By the way, you're free to call me Lulu in this form. Ms. Hightower is just a pseudonym I use here in your world."

"No thanks." Gogo responded quickly," It feels...kinda weird."

And just then, Ms. Hightower returned to her human form as a puff of pale purple smoke appeared.

"Good night, Mitsugi." Ms. Hightower said as she exited Gogo's room. When Ms. Hightower left, Gogo slammed the door shut and walked over to her bed. She laid down with the necklace on the pillow beside her as she stared to gaze at it for a rather long period of time. A necklace that held great power, a land of overflowing light. It was admittably, a lot to take in and it left a sinking feeling in Gogo's stomach knowing that something could go very wrong either way with her becoming a Pretty Cure.

 _"Doesn't my own teacher know better than to trust me, the kid who hadn't read the novel we were supposed to read for class, with the fate of her home? The feeling of being depended on, it's nerve-wracking."_

It felt like Gogo had been talking to an entirely different person tonight, a person who didn't know her up until this afternoon. Gogo knew she needed not to put a lot of thought into this. She was a reckless girl at most times, and mildly awkward as well. What happened today must've been a total fluke, nothing more, nothing less. It would've been best to give the necklace back to Ms. Hightower first thing tomorrow morning. Clearly, this meant a lot to Ms. Hightower, likely more than Gogo would ever know but...she just wasn't cut out for this job. The idea of somehow screwing things up and making things worse was too much to bear and with enemies like Onyx hell bent on having her defeated, it was definitely a possibility.

 _"It's not a big deal...people decline offers and stuff like this all the time."_ Gogo reassured in her head as she opened up the locket, revealing the hologram of Euphorium again.

"But how many people have ever declined the offer to become a magical girl?"

Gogo rolled to her side and stroked the glossy surface of the locket, trying to determine if she was making the right choice.

Turning into Cure Joy this afternoon was, something indeed. To become a warrior who fought in the name of happiness and to protect these feelings of joy experienced by others, it was weird to think someone as pessimistic as herself was able to awaken powers like that. It felt unreal, like one giant dream, but because this 'dream' left behind the remnant that was the locket, Gogo had no choice but to accept the fact that this was all indeed a reality, a whole other world, a double-life.

Now to decide if she would let it become _her_ double life.

The next day, Gogo woke up rather early, much earlier than intended but, it didn't bother her all too much. At least now, she had extra time to have maybe two breakfast if she felt necessarily and head to class earlier to hand the necklace back to Ms. Hightower. When she left her house quietly after getting ready, she looked down at the smiling locket worn around her neck and tucked inside her shirt, try to confirm her choice one last time.

 _"I don't have anything to do with this, and I'm not dependable...so it just can't work."_

As Gogo walked down the street to school, she started thinking more and more about the subject while the sun was rising slowly, tinting the sky into a pale blue and orange hue.

 _"Even if I did decide to take up the offer, things would get much harder from here, and not only because of that Onyx girl...I'll have to juggle my school-work, my extra-curriculars. I may not even be able to pick up the boys after school when mom and dad are staying at work later than intended."_

Gogo then saw a group of girls about her age, maybe older, from a different school walking together to the nearest bus station. They seemed oddly upbeat even though it was quite early. With their unending chatter, they reminded Gogo of the girls in her class eating lunch together at the pair of desks.

 _"There's also that thing. The requirement of recruiting more people to help me. And that's something I know I definitely can't do. I can't have have regular conversations with regular people. I don't know how to put myself out there like they can. I wouldn't be able to recruit a single person, so ultimately...I can't do this."_

When Gogo arrived at the gates of the school, she looked around to see if anyone was here at this early hour. There weren't many people at all, it made the school feel quite peaceful with the absence of all the students and the noise.

 _"Maybe I could just refer Ms. Hightower to one of the girls in my class, they would probably like the idea of fighting monsters in a giant frilly dress and having magical powers. They could probably all join together to form a team as well. Yeah, maybe that would be best..."_

As Gogo walked into the school, she saw very few people walking around the halls while she made her way to the classroom. She didn't know any of them, and continued to walk past these students without acknowledging their presence and she walked forward. Just before she got to her classroom, she heard sobbing in the hall and quickly went towards the wall and peered from the side to see who was crying without being seen. It was one of the girls in her class and she was on the phone with something with her free hand covering her eyes.

"But you don't understand, the guilt's killing me!" She choked out through the phone between sobs,"Well, I had no other choice! I couldn't just fail yet another test! And Natsumori told me the teacher would never find out! But now he did and now mom and dad are going to find out and they'll never speak to me again!"

"I think her name was Touka..." Gogo mumbled to herself as she watched the girl dry her eyes with her shirt sleeve.

"You know what? I'm just going to skip today. Maybe the teacher will forget all about it." Touka said over the phone as she hung up. She then started walking in the opposite direction towards the nearest exit to leave. Gogo then wondered what next to do as she watched Touka leave.

"It's really none of my business...I've gotta give this thing back to Ms. Hightower right now anyways." Gogo reminded herself as she walked towards her classroom. When she walked in, she found not a single soul in class yet and suspiciously looked around Ms. Hightower's desk to see if she was actually here in that bunny form of hers. With no sign of her, Gogo sighed and unclasped the necklace as she tried deciding where to put it on her desk. She left it on the corner of the desk and took her seat awkwardly. Gogo then went into her bag and searched through to see if she had forgotten anything. Realizing that something was indeed missing, Gogo froze up in panic after double-checking her bag for it.

 _"No doubt about it, I forgot my lunch at home!"_ Gogo thought to herself as she took a gulp.

She then looked at the time on her phone in a very distressed manner and she'd tried coming to a decision on whether or not she should run back home and get it. Gogo then shook her head and decided she'd wait until lunch time to go and retrieve her missing lunch when she heard what sound like a scream from outside. She ran towards the closest window in sight and saw Touka getting confronted by Onyx. Gogo spectated nervously while Touka took cautious steps away from Onyx.

"You're just a cosplayer or something, right?" Touka asked, though her tone was that of an unsure one.

"You _wish_ I just a cosplayer." Onyx retorted as she materialized a black star between her fingers and flung it towards Touka,"Endopath, turn her cheer into absolute fear!"

Touka tried running, but was inevitably hit by the star that multiplied before it came in contact with her. The other star went towards a nearby bench and the bench came alive.

"Endopath!" The monstrous bench roared.

Gogo gritted her teeth, trying to determine if she should try to do something about it. Though her thoughts were interrupted shortly by a certain someone's voice.

"What are you waiting for?" Ms. Hightower asked as she leaned against the door way," If you don't go now, that thing might run into town and cause more trouble."

"I'm not going." Gogo declared as she sat back down in her seat, her voice firm with her teacher giving her a really unimpressed look," It doesn't have anything to do with a girl like me."

Ms. Hightower said in response,"Right, a girl like you. Who ignited the Candle of Intrigue and awakened as a Pretty Cure? Come on we don't have time for this-"

"I'm serious! I'm not going to be strong enough! I don't have it in me to fight and defeat monsters all the time and make bonds like that girl can with other people! If you ask me, you're just wasting your time trying to get me to help! It isn't fair of you to do this you know."

"What isn't fair is you not helping that girl knowing your the only one who can!" Ms. Hightower snapped," Look, not everyone can awaken as a Pretty Cure. I've seen people try all their lives to awaken powers like yours with the candles and even if their hearts were in the right place, they couldn't do it. Haruzawa doesn't have to grieve like this, don't you agree? Nobody does, but the only person who can reverse this..."

"...Is me, I know." Gogo finally said," And I guess, they'll target anyone they find won't they?"

Ms. Hightower nodded a single nod as she walked over towards her desk, quickly noticing the locket resting at the corner of it. She picked it up and eyed it before looking towards Gogo in suspicion. The two of them heard the Endopath shout again and Ms. Hightower tossed the necklace to Gogo, who caught it and ran towards the door with Ms. Hightower following behind as she transformed. When the two of them appeared in front of Onyx, Touka and the Endopath, Onyx looked at her curiously and simply said,

"How convenient of you to arrive. Back for more already?"

"I could ask you the same thing." Gogo said as she held up her locket.

"Pretty Cure, turn that frown upside down!" She announced as a pink, orange and yellow light show appeared and swarmed her.

"A warm ray of sunshine to brighten up your day, Cure Joy!" Joy announced.

"Get rid of her." Onyx said imperatively to the Endopath who complied without hesitation.

Joy surprisingly rushed head-first towards the Endopath to deliver a mass of punches, but one missed punch resulted in her getting her fist grabbed by the Endopath and having her thrown to the opposite side of the school.

"Joy!" Lulu shouted as she hopped up to see where Cure Joy had landed.

"Pitiful," Onyx remarked uninterestedly as she rolled her eyes," Bring her over here so I can corrupt her."

The Endopath followed orders and found Cure Joy's foot sticking out from a bush in the school's garden. The Endopath instantly grabbed her boot only to find out it was only her boot inside the bush.

"Looking for this?" Joy shouted from the top of a tree as she pointed to herself.

The Endopath charged towards her as Onyx shouted," Just rip the tree out!"

And so, it grabbed onto the tree and uprooted the tree effortlessly, causing Joy to fall out from it.

"Hey, what are you going to do with this tree now?!" Joy shouted as she clung onto a branch of the tree, getting flailed around like a leaf and was starting to feel sick.

The Endopath managed to flick Joy off the tree and into the opposite direction where she fell on the pavement in front of Onyx. Joy's muscles ached after hitting the ground at such an impact that she had little to no time to run away from Onyx.

Joy turned pale with fear as Onyx inched closer towards her with a black star in her two fingers as she reassured to Joy," Don't worry, you'll make a wonderful Endopath."

Joy tried inching backwards to escape what appeared to be the inevitable when suddenly, Lulu had launched herself towards Onyx and knocked the black star out of her hand. Lulu hung to Onyx and gave Joy some time to flee while she could.

"Go get the Endopath, I've got this brat!" Lulu instructed as Onyx tried shaking her off her arm.

"The only brat here is you." Onyx responded in irritation as she continued to try and shake off Lulu with little avail.

Joy nodded and raced towards the Endopath and began partaking in a fist fight with it again. After a short while, Joy was feeling herself getting drained of her energy and then she caught a glimpse of Touka who started whispering things to herself like,

"I can't believe I did this! Everyone's going to hate me once they find out!"

"And I thought I had it bad..." Joy said to herself as she landed one more punch towards the Endopath, sending a few feet away from herself. She tended to her bruises for a moment and then returned to her fight with the Endopath. At this point, both of them were battered and were barely able to push through this fight.

"I just need to find that star from before, but where...?" Joy muttered to herself as she noticed something at the bottom of one of the Endopath's legs. Instantly, Joy hurried towards it while the Endopath was down and cried out,

"Joyous heel smash!"

She created a small crack in it and a black aura seeped out from it as she took a few steps away from it.

"Now's my chance!" Joy shouted as she held her out in front of herself.

"Pretty Cure, Brilliant Elation!" She yelled, causing the area around her to turn pale yellow. The Endopath had been purified at last and was returned to a regular bench with a pure white charm appearing on top of it. Onyx left without saying a word and Touka was coming to slowly, trying to figure out what happened. Gogo retreated up into the tree behind Touka and gestured Lulu, now transformed back to Ms. Hightower, to check and see if she was alright. Ms. Hightower gave her a rather annoyed look before tending to Touka.

Ms. Hightower cleared her throat before asking," Haruzawa, are you feeling ok? I saw you unconscious over here and was about to get the school nurse."

"I'm...I'm really sorry Ms. Hightower, but I don't have any idea how I got here." Touka answered in an uncertain voice.

As the two of them talked, Gogo continued to watch them up in the tree, thinking about what just happened.

"If peppy girls like her and Masumi can get corrupted, then I guess that means no one is really safe..." Gogo said to herself quietly as she held up and looked at the second charm she collected since her Pretty Cure career started.

Later during class, Gogo was fast asleep during her lesson in English but lucky for her, Ms. Hightower let her off the hook today and paid no mind to her as she slept through her class.

Gogo was a heavy sleeper this morning and didn't even wake up when the bell for lunch rang. Today every kid left the classroom, except for Gogo who was still fast asleep at her desk.

"I don't think she realizes how hard she makes things for herself sometimes..." Ms. Hightower stated in a soft voice as she walked over to Gogo's desk," But, perhaps her future teammates can help her with this issue of hers. After all, she'll be having teammates sooner than she thinks."

Just then, something outside the class window caught Ms. Hightower's eye and she gazed down to see a girl with very fair and short dark hair walking with a pair of girls. It wasn't her appearance that caught her eye but rather, the glossy white locket with a smiling face on it worn around her neck.

" _Much_ sooner than she thinks."


	4. Charmed, I'm sure

A trio of third-years at Nakagawa were walking outside the school and chatting amongst themselves, well two of them were while one of them had her eyes fixated on a fashion magazine. The quieter one of the trio walked behind the two, only half-listening to their conversation.

"But I don't want to analyze that scene for class, it's nothing but a bunch abstract thoughts from the girl!" One of the girls lamented as she laced her fingers behind her head.

"But, Mr. Natsume did say that ours was the easiest one to analyze." The other girl pointed out before turning to the girl behind them for her input," Takai, what do you think?"

The girl lifted her eyes from her magazine for just a few moments to properly deliver her response to the girls.

"I think you guys might just be intimidated by it. I read it over in class and I think if we just try and apply the literary device techniques to the extract we should be fine." The girl holding the magazine voiced. The duo in front of her exchanged somewhat suspicious looks and nodded slowly in response.

"Well, we have a student council meeting today, so we'll text you for a time to work on this later ok?" One of the girls said. The girl with magazine nodded and the two of them bade her farewell as their paths split. The two girls went back into the school and the girl with the magazine stared at them for a few moments before they were almost out of sight.

"Motou Teruko and Takehiro Setsuyo. Student council reps for our class who double as best friends. Of course there wouldn't be more unfit individual then myself, Takai Rumi, to get paired with such girls." The girl, Rumi, said to herself once the two were out of earshot," Well, it's ok. This is just a one time thing anyways."

Meanwhile, back in Gogo's classroom, Gogo was still fast asleep, with Ms. Hightower now poking her with a meter stick to wake her up.

"Hey, Mitsugi, wake up! I found something, or rather someone, that we might wanna look into." Ms. Hightower stated as she continued to jab Gogo with the meter stick, with Gogo finally waking up as a result.

"You found what?" Gogo asked groggily as she rubbed her eyes with a yawn.

"Just follow me." Ms. Hightower instructed as she walked over to the door to close it, leaving Gogo to look at her in question. In an instant, a cloud of pink and purple smoke formed around Ms. Hightower and in her place was Lulu the bunny. Once the puff of smoke had disappeared, Gogo continued to look at her teacher in absolute curiosity.

"Why are you using that form right now? It'll be easier for you to get seen or something wouldn't it?" Gogo pointed out after a single cough from inhaling the strange smoke.

"Not if I keep myself hidden!" Lulu declared in cheery voice as she hopped onto the desk in front of Gogo and pointed to her bag.

Gogo clutched her bag defensively and shook her head as she said," No way, it'd be weird to have my teacher crawling around inside my bag."

Lulu's cheerful demeanor was dropped within an instant as she side-eyed Gogo and asked her in a rather mischievous tone,"Have you already forgotten?"

Gogo felt her skin crawl at the question, with Lulu's voice less squeaky and reminiscent of her voice when taking the guise of Ms. Hightower. It was rather juxtaposing and of course,Gogo had no idea what she was talking about, yet she still felt mildly intimidated.

"Forgotten what...?" Gogo asked nervously, her gaze stuck on Lulu. The two of them were starting to stare each other down until Lulu finally announced,

"You already let that happen!"

Gogo seemed rather irritated now and almost shameful that she let herself get intimidated by a bunny and didn't say another word as she stuffed Lulu in her bag, though she did grumble and mutter under her breath quite a bit.

"So where to?" Gogo asked as she walked out of the school building and looked around for someone wearing a locket identical to hers.

"To the west entrance." Lulu whispered from inside the bag.

Gogo seemed confused for a moment and squinted towards the west of the building as she commented," I didn't even realize this school had a west entrance."

And so, Gogo began walking towards the west entrance of the school, though she wasn't exactly sure where this entrance was located. It was somewhat cloudy out today but the sun had managed to shine through the few clouds. So, quite a few kids had decided to eat lunch outside today. But, the closer Gogo approached the west of the building, the less kids she saw cross her path.

"Are you sure we're allowed to be here?" Gogo asked, her tone a little louder now that it appeared to be only the two of them within the vicinity.

"Of course!" Lulu replied as she popped her head from out of the bag.

Gogo sighed as she looked for the entrance of the building from here," Alright, let me rephrase that. Are you sure _I'm_ allowed to be here?"

When Gogo reached the west entrance, she looked around for someone, anyone at this point and couldn't find a single person in sight.

"Are you sure the person you saw went this direction?" Gogo asked impatiently," Don't you think they may've...I dunno, went inside?"

"I'm certain they're around here, on the bench that's...around here." Lulu answered vaguely as she started looking around from inside the bag.

Gogo then went towards the corner of the building, looking to see if there was anyone there,"What makes you so certain someone's..."

Gogo's eyes then fell to a girl sitting on a bench by herself with a magazine in her hands, seeming completely uninterested in her surroundings. She had the whole bench to herself and took this to her advantage, leaving a pink, blue and white lunch box on the center of the bench and her legs crossed. Her hair was cut short and dark like a raven, with her bangs ending close to her bright green eyes. Her eyes were quite large and she wore eyeliner, her winged tips being perfect. Her skin was very, very fair and she wore a somewhat unusual berry shade of lipstick. And worn around her neck was a white glossy locket that looked just like Gogo's.

Gogo didn't realize she was staring but once she did, her cheeks were flushed and she stood behind the school, hoping the girl didn't notice her. She noticed her breathing quicken for a few moments and she shook it off but not before noticing Lulu had jumped out from her bag to get a better look at the girl. Gogo looked down to Lulu and asked unsurely,

"Are you sure she's my teammate?"

"Positively and without a doubt." Lulu responded as she tried to get closer to the girl, though Gogo wouldn't allow her to as she put her foot in front of the bunny.

"How can you be so sure?" Gogo questioned with her eyes narrowed as she tried to steal a glance of the girl on the bench," Plus, she couldn't be my teammate, I don't even know her."

Lulu then said to Gogo," Takai Rumi, a third-year who keeps to herself most times. I had to teach her English class last year. A quick learner but, she's pretty reserved and won't say much. I guess she's shy or something but I mean...Mitsugi are you even listening to me?"

Gogo was staring at Rumi again and Lulu's question snapped her back to her senses and caused her to hit her face against the wall as she repeated," She's pretty, what?"

Rumi noticed Gogo at the side of the building, giggled quietly to herself, and continued to read through her magazine. Though, Gogo didn't realize that Rumi knew she was there. Gogo then spun in the opposite direction and picked up Lulu to place her back into her messenger bag.

"Honestly, she doesn't strike me as a magical girl type. She's too cool for that of stuff." Gogo stated neutrally as she continued to walk.

"Then explain the necklace." Lulu reminded her.

Gogo shrugged and replied with," Maybe it's a fake. Just a coincidence that she has a necklace that looks like a smiling locket. Hm, speaking of which, Ms. Hightower-"

Just then, the bell had rang and left Gogo in realization that she only had five minutes to get to class now as she began to sprint towards the school.

"Oh shoot! I'll just have to ask you after school." Gogo decided as she ran towards the main entrance, forgetting that she had been right beside the west entrance.

Later, just before Gogo's session, Gogo had demanded that Ms. Hightower stay after school so the two of them could discuss more of Gogo's concerns at her place. Ever so reluctantly, Ms. Hightower complied but then, Gogo realized that she might have been having that meeting between her and Ms. Hightower sooner than she expected.

"They're...they're gone!" Gogo shouted in a frenzy as she slowly began throwing things out from her book bag on the floor. Ms. Hightower arched an eyebrow and looked over Gogo's shoulder before asking,

"What's gone?" As Gogo continued to fling objects out from her bag.

"My gym clothes, they went missing and they're always-!"

"-Excuse me, Mitsugi?" A girl said from behind Gogo and Ms. Hightower. She was standing with another girl who made her appear petite in comparison and had short brown hair with ombre tips.

Gogo recognized them, but a certain important detail of them had escaped her mind.

 _"What were their names again?"_

"You had forgotten this last week," The shorter girl said in a somewhat nervous voice as she held out a bright orange and yellow drawstring bag.

"My gym clothes!" Gogo exclaimed as she took the bag from the girl and exhaled a sigh of relief," Ah, we better get to the track, otherwise Chitose'll probably kill us!"

Gogo ran past the two of them and awkwardly, the shorter girl laughed a little once Gogo was out of eyesight.

"I don't know Michi, I think she's a nice girl...just, shy." The shorter girl stated as the two of them started walking to the track.

"Maybe but...Hanami, she doesn't seem like your normal kind of shy." Michi replied as she wore a skeptic look on her face as she thought of Gogo.

"Normal type of shy? What do you mean by that?" Hanami asked as she looked towards the track through the school window, seeing Gogo getting lectured by Chitose who was ten feet away from her.

Michi didn't respond and the two of them continued to walk in silence.

Later after club, Gogo found Ms. Hightower grading papers in her homeroom and motioned her out of the classroom. Ms. Hightower collected her things and followed Gogo out of he classroom, but instead, she was the one leading Gogo out of the school.

"We'll have this discussion at my place, got it?" Ms. Hightower informed as they reached the gates of the school. Gogo eyed her curiously, still under the belief that she lived in a rabbit hole.

"Do you not like my place?" Gogo wondered aloud, trying to sound innocent in asking this but doing just the opposite. Ms. Hightower shook her head and answered with,

"There's a lot of people in your home right? Your brothers and your parents? We really can't risk them finding out anything about this you know."

"Well, can't you just pretend to be a stuffed toy or something?" Gogo suggested as she held a lifeless look in her eyes for a few moments as a demonstration to Ms. Hightower.

Ms. Hightower chuckled and responded with," Then how will you explain the alleged talking to yourself? Come on, I'm only ten minutes away from the school by foot."

"Human foot or rabbit foot?" Gogo questioned under her breath as she cautiously followed Ms. Hightower. They two of them went past the school, going in the opposite direction of where Gogo's place was, which happened to be a territory Gogo had yet to explore.

It was like the quieter side of town with only few people around here and there with a small strip mall with a grocery store on the other side of the street.

"Isn't this where the rich kids from school live?" Gogo questioned as they continued to walk to Ms. Hightower's place.

"I think they're farther down the street." Ms. Hightower answered as she stopped in front of an apartment building.

"Why did we stop? I thought the forest was over there." Gogo said as she pointed to behind the grocery store.

"Will you stop it with the rabbit hole thing?" Ms. Hightower requested as she opened the door to the apartment. The two of them walked into the lobby and Gogo couldn't help but stare and take in her surroundings. It felt as if she was visiting a friend's house for the very first time. But admittably, she hadn't done that in quite a while. The lobby was empty and they were a lot of things Gogo couldn't help but admire, like the mirror beside the elevators and the small sitting area in the center of the lobby with a glass and gold-coloured rimmed table.

"Mitsugi, elevator's here." Ms. Hightower called from the other side of the lobby. Gogo darted over to her and joined her teacher in the elevator. Ms. Hightower pressed the button for the seventeenth floor and the two stood in awkward silence until they got to the floor.

They walked to the room 1705 and Ms. Hightower showed Gogo her apartment. Gogo somehow still seemed suspicious as even though it seemed average for Ms. Hightower the high-school teacher, it seemed quite dull for Lulu the bunny. Gogo started looking behind Ms. Hightower's pale blue couches, and then under her tables intently, to the point where she was irritating Ms. Hightower.

"Just what the hell are you looking for?" Ms. Hightower questioned as Gogo continued to scope out the place.

"Where's all the magic?" Gogo asked from underneath the table.

"You think I could afford fancy stuff on a teacher's salary?" Ms. Hightower asked as she held back on a laugh.

"No like, I mean... the magic in here." Gogo asked as she pointed to her locket.

Ms. Hightower stayed silent as she tried to form a response and for a moment, it seemed like she was about to say something but decided against it. Instead, she said,

"I have to keep a low-profile if I want to stay, don't I?"

Gogo decided that was reasonable and sat awkwardly on Ms. Hightower's two-seater as Ms. Hightower walked to the kitchen.

"Mitsugi, what do you take in your coffee?" Ms. Hightower called out from the kitchen as she opened a cupboard.

"Nothing except chocolate milk." Gogo called back in a neutral tone. Ms. Hightower stopped looking for things in her cupboard for a moment to side-eye Gogo and replied,

"I've got plain milk and a bottle of chocolate syrup, will that work?"

"Homemade, I like that." Gogo responded, feeling a little more comfortable in her surroundings. Ms Hightower laughed quietly to herself as she collected ingredients for her coffee and Gogo's chocolate milk. After she was finished with preparing the beverages, she walked back to the living room and handed Gogo her drink as she waited for Gogo to begin their discussion.

Gogo took a deep breath and finally asked," Where do you get these lockets from?"

"Gachapon."

"Come again?"

"You know, those little toy vending machines." Ms. Hightower answered as she took a sip of her coffee.

"So then, it's not that unlikely that Takai found the machine and just cranked one out." Gogo replied," Maybe she isn't really a Pretty Cure after all."

Quickly, Ms. Hightower shook her head and said," That machine, it's...unique."

Gogo stared at Ms. Hightower curiously as she waited for Ms. Hightower to continue, though it seemed like she didn't seem to want to do any further explaining.

"Unique, unique how?" Gogo urged impatiently after she took a sip of her chocolate milk.

"It doesn't stay in the same place often." Ms. Hightower explained hesitantly," It has a tendency to relocate whenever it sense major danger. For example...Onyx."

"That snobby kid from Melancholy?" Gogo interrogated as she took a sip from her chocolate milk," She was considered dangerous enough for the machine to feel the need to relocate?"

"Well sure, you've seen what the girl's capable of." Ms. Hightower pointed out, though still Gogo didn't seem all too convinced that this was reasonable.

"Yeah but...I don't know. The more I think about it, the more she feels more like a little brat than an actual threat." Gogo expressed as she put down her drink.

"Don't underestimate her or Melancholy." Ms. Hightower declared imperatively," That could be your downfall. Anyways, the machine...it's very selective. Usually it eats up the 200 yen of those who try and get a locket. And if Takai was able to get a locket then...they might want her to become a Pretty Cure."

"They? Who's they?" Gogo asked as more questions started coming to her head," Just who gave me these powers? And what does it take for them to get lost or revoked or-?"

"-Mitsugi, just how long have you had these concerns?" Ms. Hightower interrupted, causing Gogo's eyes to widen suddenly before she looked away uneasily.

"You're worried that something might go terribly wrong, right?" Ms. Hightower asked as she looked up at the ceiling, seeing Gogo nod swiftly from the side of her eye,"...It's ok, I am too. But, as long as your intentions are pure, I think things will be fine."

The two of them fell quiet for a few minutes, and then Ms. Hightower abruptly cleared her throat to end the silence and said," So, we have to get Takai on board with this very soon. Tomorrow afternoon at the latest."

Gogo scoffed and answered with," Hell no!"

Ms. Hightower cocked her head towards Gogo in an instant and asked in agitation," Do you not want to have teammates? We don't have a second to lose!"

"I can't just talk to a third-year I've never even spoken to before and try and convince her that she's some kind of magical warrior that's destined to help me save a realm that I can't prove exists!" Gogo attempted to reason.

"You can't just expect your teammates to approach you, as leader, you have to be the one to recruit them!" Ms. Hightower exasperated before she took the pendant on Gogo's necklace into her hands," Plus, you do have proof."

Ms. Hightower opened the necklace and revealed the hologram of the castle to her again. Gogo took the locket back into her hands and looked at the mini-castle inside.

 _"If that girl were to get hurt, it'd be my fault wouldn't it?"_ Gogo thought to herself, _" But, if she has a locket, then maybe she'll be fine. Maybe it really is worth a shot."_

"So tomorrow, we recruit Takai, got it?" Ms. Hightower reaffirmed, with Gogo nodding nervously in return.

 _"Oh shoot, that means I have to talk to a third-year..."_ Gogo said in head, with the mere thought of it twisting her stomach into knots.

That night, Gogo thought about how she was going to approach Rumi and ended up feeling more awake then ever with unwanted adrenaline coursing through her veins at the thought of talking to her.

 _"Me? A magical girl? As if!"_ Gogo imagined Rumi saying with a laugh following behind. Gogo felt her heart speeding up as these thoughts of Rumi laughing her off began to pile up in her mind.

"No one said this would be easy..." Gogo reminded herself quietly with a yawn before falling asleep.

That night, she dreamt of asking Rumi to become her teammate and she did this without any nervousness whatsoever and just when Rumi was about to answer, she woke up.

"If only it could be that easy..." Gogo groaned to herself as she sat upright.

During the entire morning, all Gogo could think about was the possible outcomes from her telling Rumi about the Pretty Cure. Didn't Ms. Hightower once think that this could've been risky? What if there was more than meets the eye about Rumi? What if she was some kinda spy trying to reveal the identities of magical girls around town and wore accessories like their own to gain their interest? It seemed unlikely but, it was just as possible as Rumi being the next Pretty Cure, wasn't it?

"So, Mitsugi are you ready?" Ms. Hightower asked before she shut the classroom door after morning class to transform.

"All of a sudden, this seems like a bad idea again..." Gogo responded softly before Ms. Hightower transformed.

"But Mitsugi~!" Lulu wailed after transforming," You already said you were going to!"

 _"I swear to god these are two entirely different people I'm talking to_." Gogo thought to herself," What if Takai doesn't want to help us?"

"We won't know if we don't try." Lulu reminded her. Gogo took a deep breath and motioned Lulu into her bag. Gogo walked out to the west entrance where Rumi was yesterday, in hopes that she wouldn't be there. But unfortunately, Rumi was in that exact same spot as yesterday, having her lunch cross-legged with a new magazine in her free hand. Gogo stared at her for a few moments, feeling her knees grow weak and her heart race. The longer she stared at Rumi, the less she felt capable to tell her about the Pretty Cure. She bit her lip and felt her stomach writhe again as she clung to the side of the school building.

"Mitsugi, what are you waiting for?!" Lulu yell-whispered as she tried pushing Gogo's feet to get her move with little avail.

"I can't talk to a third-year like her!" Gogo confessed in a yell-whisper as she squeezed her eyes shut.

"My god, Mitsugi." Lulu muttered under her breath as she turned back into Ms. Hightower and gave her a push hard enough to push her away from the wall. Gogo nearly lost balance as she was pushed and had caught Rumi's attention. Now she really couldn't retreat without going unnoticed.

Anxiously, Gogo walked up to Rumi and kept her eyes on her and tried to put a welcoming smile on her face, with some avail. Gogo studied Rumi's face as she inched towards her, which inevitably made her more nervous. Today her lipstick was a more lilac colour and her eye-shadow matched and featured some grey accent to it. And course, her eyeliner was perfect again.

"Did you need something?" Rumi asked as she put her book down for a moment to look at Gogo. Her voice was soft, yet mature but not as stuck-up as Gogo expected. It fact, she sounded more down-to-earth if anything.

Gogo drew a blank and couldn't help but stare at her wide-eyed as she tried to deliver a response. Gogo opened her mouth a few times and could only stammer out,

"I...um, well...I just..."

Before Gogo was just about say 'never mind' and turn back, Rumi exclaimed," You're one of my fans aren't you?"

"Your what?"

"Wow, so um, would you care for an autograph?" Rumi asked as she rummaged through her bag for a pen and paper," To think, I'd be approached at school. I knew this day would come for someone to recognize me as _the_ makeup vlogger Rumi T but I didn't expect it to be so soon!"

 _"What is she even talking about?"_ Gogo thought to herself as Rumi continued to search for something to write on.

"You know what? I'll do even better than an autograph. I'll give you a makeover after school and feature you in my next video!" Rumi exclaimed excitedly before the school bells rang," This will be great! Oh, by the way, what's your name?"

"Gogo...Mitsugi Gogo..." Gogo answered, trailing off due to being at a loss of words.

"Alright, I'll see you here at this very spot after school, alright Mitsugi?" Rumi declared, with Gogo nodding a single nod in return. Rumi ran off to her classroom after she collected all her things and Ms. Hightower walked over to Gogo, who stood there speechless.

"What just happened?" Ms. Hightower blurted out," Either way, you've got to go to her place and tell her about the Pretty Cure."

"I don't really have a choice do I?" Gogo asked weakly as she stared off into the direction Rumi ran in," But it's nice to know that she's as socially inept as I am."

"So, Mitsugi, how long have you been watching my videos?" Rumi asked curiously as the two of them walked to her place after school, with Lulu tagging along in Gogo's bag.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you..." Gogo responded vaguely, with Rumi gasping as she clasped her hands together in delight.

"Wow, not only have I met a fan today, I've met a long-time viewer today!" Rumi interjected, seemingly lost in her thoughts as Gogo desolately stared at the road in front of her.

 _"I only watched three of her videos during my study period today, but I don't think I'll tell her that."_ Gogo thought to herself," _Just as I thought, for the most part, we're polar opposites. Despite being a bit of a dork, she's still one of those classy girls who really care about their appearance and stuff like that. Not to mention, she seems pretty mature for age. Despite-"_

"This might be ones of my best videos yet!" Rumi squealed to herself as she clasped her hands together again.

 _"-the fact that does stuff like that."_

They soon reached Rumi's house and Gogo took notice of the fact that they were the only two here quickly as they walked to Rumi's room.

"So, Takai, do you live here all by yourself?" Gogo asked as she looked around Rumi's room. It was rather large and shades of pink and blue could be found all over the room, from her pink white and blue polka-dotted comforter to her striped blue and pink desk lamp.

"No, my dad should be home any minute and my brother doesn't get home until about six." Rumi answered as she started looking through her makeup bag," So Mitsugi, what would you like?"

"Sorry what?" Gogo asked with a blank expression on her face.

"Smoky eyes? Lots of contour? Matte lips?" Rumi questioned, confusing Gogo even more," Though I don't think we should share lipsticks. Maybe if I have a lip brush on me and take colour from the sides of the lipstick.

 _"What is she even talking about? It's like she's speaking another language!"_ Gogo griped in her mind as she started picturing things like black eyes and lips with the texture of rugs on herself.

"You can just...do whatever you think suits me best." Gogo decided in a somewhat unsure voice, with Rumi giving her a confident smile in return. Rumi removed a few articles of make-up from her bag and brought them over to her desk where her laptop was. She pulled out a fold-in chair she kept in her closet that collecting dust for Gogo to sit on and she turned on her laptop.

When the webcam started recording Rumi said," Hey my makeup madames! Today we're going to be experimenting a new look with my long-time fan I just met today, Miss Gogo!"

"I,uh...hi." Gogo sputtered awkwardly as she looked down to her feet _," Damn it, why didn't I just tell her about the Pretty Cure before she started filming?!"_

"So to begin today's sunset inspired look, we'll start off with a clean face." Rumi said as she handed Gogo a moist towelette.

 _"She must be really new to this vlogging thing, considering she should've done this before she started filming..."_ Gogo thought as she rubbed the towelette against her face.

"So, starting with our foundation...Oh wait." Rumi said as she looked at the bottle in front of her, realizing her own foundation wasn't going to suit Gogo's skin tone at all. Awkwardly, she chuckled and said,

"Since me and Gogo have drastically different skin tones, which is ok, we'll just skip this step today. So, instead, we'll begin with the eye shadow. Today I'll be using KYX's "Masquerave" palette."

Rumi seemed a bit more awkward now as she held up the palette to the webcam. Gogo was quick to detect her uneasiness and figured it was because she screwed up so early in the video. But it seemed to slip her mind that she could just edit that bit out.

"So, start off with the colour "Ultra Nova" which is a very, very shimmery gold tone with lots of glitter in it." Rumi instructed as she dusted some of the eye shadow onto her makeup brush and looked over to Gogo, who's eyes were wide open," Um, Gogo, could you close your eyes for this?"

Gogo nodded her head in a robotic manner and did as told, feeling quite uncomfortable as Rumi powdered the eye shadow onto her eyelids.

 _"Come to think of it, have I ever even had my makeup done before?"_ Gogo wondered to herself as Rumi dabbed the eye shadow _," One time I had a lollipop turn my lips blue, that counts right?"_

When Rumi was done with the base colour, Gogo opened her eyes and all of a sudden, she felt a stinging sensation in them.

 _"Oh god I'm tearing up, it isn't from the glitter is it?"_ Gogo thought to herself as her eyes started watering, _" I gotta take this stuff off right now! But should I really do it on camera? Ugh this wouldn't be happening if I just told her why I came in the first place!"_

Rumi turned her back for just a moment to take something else out from her makeup bag and a window for Gogo to remove the makeup had appeared.

 _"I don't see any of those towelettes..."_ Gogo thought as she spun her head around the room, until she saw them on the far end of Rumi's bed. It was close than she realized, but not as close as she assumed as she tried to stretch towards it so she wouldn't have to get up. She leaned the chair towards the bed with her and just when she was about to grab it, she lost balance and fell off the chair with the chair falling on top of her.

"Um, Mitsugi?" Rumi said blankly as she quickly turned her head in the opposite direction to see what had happened. Rumi then decided to stop recording and asked Gogo as she saw the bag of makeup removers in hand,

"Do you not like the makeup?"

"No, that's not it! It's just..." Gogo trailed off with uncertainty detectable in her voice as she stood up to place the chair back next to Rumi and sat on it, " I didn't come here today to receive a makeover. I needed to tell you about something important."

"Something important? Like what?" Rumi questioned curiously as Gogo stared at the necklace she wore.

"Where did you get that necklace from?" Gogo asked gently, her gaze falling to her feet.

Rumi looked down at her necklace and held the pendant of it as she looked at Gogo," This? I got it from one of those toy-vending machines. Why?"

 _"I was hoping you wouldn't say that."_ Gogo thought to herself as she kept her gaze adverted from Rumi.

"Rumi, I am a magical girl, a Pretty Cure, and...you are too." Gogo blurted out, keeping her eyes shut so she wouldn't have to look at Rumi gawking at her in suspicion.

"But, how can that be? How am I supposed to believe..." Rumi asked, trailing off when Gogo opened her locket to reveal the holographic castle,"...You." Just then, the two of them heard the roar of an Endopath from outside Rumi's house and the two of them rushed towards her window to see what it was. Outside in Rumi's front yard was a young girl curled up with her arms around her knees and a paddle-ball Endopath towering beside her. Floating beside the Endopath's head was a woman with short dark brown hair dressed in a maroon dress that had a high-low skirt. She had a rather gaudy necklace worn around her neck along with bronze coloured boots. She was an average height and an average build for a woman who appeared to be in her late twenties or so. She also had her lips painted bright red and wore a suspicious stack of what seemed to gauze around her forearms.

"Oh my, poor little Onyx was having so much trouble trying to defeat that Pretty Cure girl but it would appear that the Pretty Cure just wasn't all that intimidated by her." The woman scoffed," I, Nijoux, on the other hand can instill so much fear into those who's path I cross that I don't have to face things like enemies. They just quit while they can when I get involved."

"Who the heck is that, and what is she doing with an Endopath?" Gogo muttered under her breath as Rumi continued to look at the scene beyond her window.

"That girl over there is my neighbour's daughter, what happened to her?" Rumi asked as she kept her gaze on her before abruptly turning to Gogo," Mitsugi, do you know what's going on?"

"Unfortunately, I do." Gogo said as she placed one of her feet on Rumi's windowsill.

"I've always to do this." Gogo said to herself quietly as she put her other foot onto the window and leapt off while shouting," Pretty Cure, turn that frown upside down!"

"M-mitsugi?!" Rumi stuttered as she watch a swarm of light appeared around Gogo in midair that vanished as quickly as they came, leaving Cure Joy in Gogo's place.

"Really? She always wanted to jump out of a window?" Lulu asked as she looked out the window-sill beside Rumi. Rumi quickly spun around and looked at Lulu in pure bewilderment, eyeing Lulu uncomfortably while Lulu continued to watch the Endopath.

"Just when did you get here?" Rumi asked quietly, her eyes wide before her attention was brought back to Cure Joy shortly.

"A warm ray of sunshine to brighten up your day, Cure Joy!" Joy announced once she landed to the ground.

"Aw, so the Pretty Cure was here all along." Nijoux stated with a slight pout," Well, no matter, she won't be here for long anyways. Endopath, eliminate her!"

"I don't think so." Joy said under her breath with a grin as she darted up towards the Endopath, and leapt up shouting," Pretty Cure, Vivacious Spark!"

Joy emitted a tri-beam of pink, orange and yellow lights from her hands and directed them at the Endopath. The spiraling attack damaged the Endopath a little bit, but not enough for it to retaliate and kick Joy towards the house.

"I didn't know she could do that..." Lulu remarked as she watched Joy getting flung towards the house, still thinking about her new sub-attack.

"Excuse me, but...that girl just told me that I have powers, just like her. Is she telling me the truth?" Rumi asked Lulu all of a sudden, leading Lulu to get a closer look at her locket just before she could confirm.

Lulu inspected it and gave Rumi a nod free of doubt and said," You're to be her teammate; the second Pretty Cure."

"I'm just getting started!" Joy claimed, though she sounded somewhat exhausted as she said this.

"Then, how do I transform like her? I want to help her and I don't want to see her fighting all on her own." Rumi declared in a near frantic voice.

"You and me both." Lulu replied," But, even if you've been gifted one of the Smiling Lockets, you can't ever transform unless you put in under the flame of one the Everlasting lights of Cheer.

"Well, where am I supposed to get one of those?" Rumi probed," Wait, if Mitsugi transformed, that means she has one of those lights so I could use hers couldn't I?"

"I'm afraid you'll need to find your own candle." Lulu answered grimly, causing Rumi to dash out of the room in search of a candle," Hey, what makes you think you could find one around here-?!"

"Jeez, you're a rowdy one aren't ya?" Joy asked as she dusted herself off and stood up a few feet away from the Endopath. Just then, Rumi swung the front door to the house open and startled Joy greatly.

"Takai, just what do you think you're doing?" Joy asked as she spun her head around.

"I...I'm going to prove to you that I don't need one of those lights to transform!" Rumi proclaimed, receiving a dumbfounded look from Joy.

"Now that would be a sight to see." Nijoux remarked with a chuckle following behind," But even I know such a feat would be impossible."

"Nope, I'm gonna make it happen!" Rumi declared as she held up her necklace high just like Joy had done earlier. Rumi had her eyes pressed shut and focused all of her energy into that pendant and concentrated, yelling,

"Pretty Cure, turn that frown upside down!"

A set of blue, pink and white lights did emerge out from the locket, but that was all that the locket seemed to be able to do as of currently. Nothing else happened after that, surprising Rumi and Cure Joy.

"I told you, you won't ever have the power to transform if you don't get your locket lit by one of the lights!" Lulu scolded as she hopped out of the house from the front door.

"Well fine, I'll just look right this instant!" Rumi decided as she began searching her mailbox and behind some lawn ornaments.

"I can't believe she wants to be a Pretty Cure _this_ badly." Joy muttered under her breath as she watched Rumi search desperately around the front yard for one of the lights.

"It's not that she wants to be a Pretty Cure, she wants to help you." Lulu explained quietly before the Endopath started attacking again. Joy looked at her in suspicion just before she began to attack the Endopath.

Rumi's search became more and more dire to her as she watched Joy continued to fight and saw Miho, her neighbour's daughter, mourn to herself. Joy continued to defend the three of them, getting depleted of her energy slowly as the fight dragged on. Rumi attempted to advert her gaze her the fight so she wouldn't have to see Joy get wounded so badly, but every time she saw saw a flash yellow and pink fling past her eyes after being thrown towards her, Rumi winced and looked even harder. The sight of watching someone fight and knowing she could've helped if she had just one last requirement to administrate the power to be of some help made her heart grieve. The longer she searched, the more futile it all seemed. But, Joy was still fighting after all this time and if Joy wasn't giving up, then why should she? Despite the feeling that this wasn't getting anywhere and that she was putting herself in danger by letting herself look around frivolously while Joy was in the middle of a fight, Rumi searched as hard as ever and finally, she found a very foreign object, a pale blue candle, sitting deep within one of the bushes in her front yard. Rumi's eyes enlarged as she took hold of the candle and displayed it in front of Lulu and Cure Joy.

"Now how did that get there?" Lulu and Cure Joy wondered aloud in unison, the latter taking a brief moment from her fight to examine the candle.

"That's the Candle of Solace." Lulu stated as Rumi continued to look down at the candle.

Rumi took a brief pause to stop staring at the candle for a moment and to take in her surroundings one last time.

 _"I don't know what that woman's intentions are but...all she's doing is making a mess of my yard and causing everyone here to grieve."_ Rumi thought to herself as she saw Miho crying to herself and Joy trying to wince away the pain of crashing into the tree in her yard," And I absolutely won't let her continue doing this."

Just then, the candle had been lit in Rumi's hand and quickly Rumi did as she had been previously instructed as she put her locket over the flame of the candle.

The locket turned blue and Rumi cried out," Pretty Cure, turn that frown upside down!"

The blue, pink and white lights had once again emerged from her locket and had enveloped her entirely. Her body was glowing blue and pink shade and she twirled around once, having a white dress appearing on her body that had pink and blue ruffles on it at the ends with cerise trimming around it. The dress also had off-shoulder sleeves and shiny silver buttons at the center of it. She held her hands up and on them appeared a pair of perwinkle and pale pink sleeveless gloves. Then she knelt down and covered her legs with her arms and appearing onto them were a pair of bright blue and pink boots with smiley faces on them at the top. Next, she then pulled her hair back behind her ear and it became white with pink and blue streaks and held up in what appeared to be a bun with two sections of hair on either sides of her face. She then snapped her figners and appeared on her head was string of silver beads with a large bue smiling face along with a bright pink choker and a blue bow on her lower back. Finally she placed her hands over her chest and made a large pink bow with another blue smiling face in the center appear.

She struck a pose and opened her eyes as she announced," A soothing sensation to bring you at peace, Cure Delight!"

"Wow..." Cure Joy exhaled, speechless as she stared at her new ally.

Cure Delight then pointed to the Endopath and declared determinedly," I'm ending this now."


	5. Gogo's long weekend

"Wow, you actually were right about her..." Joy exhaled as she stared at Delight standing before her. Dressed in all white, she looked as if she just floated down from the heavens to exile the Endopath. But, Joy noticed Delight's knees wobble and remembered that even though she had transformed, that didn't necessarily mean knew exactly what she was doing now. Chances of her needing some guidance were quite high and so, Joy stood up and landed on the mail box beside Delight and said,

"Just follow my lead ok?"

Delight nodded as Joy leapt up from the mail box and towards the Endopath. Once Joy leapt up, her fingers started glowing a bright yellow as she charged them with energy and held them out towards the Endopath.

"Pretty Cure, Vivacious Spark!" Joy shouted as another tri-beam of pink, yellow and orange light had flickered out from her fingertips.

Delight watched the Endopath stagger back as the attack made contact with it, her eyes wide with bewilderment as she asked quietly," Just how on Earth am I supposed to something like _that_?"

"Delight, just try not to think about it too hard, other-wise, your powers won't function like you want them to! Just be thoughtless like Joy!" Lulu called out from behind.

"Wow, ok thanks." Joy sighed as she pressed her fist against her forehead for a moment as she landed back onto the ground.

"So, if I applying my own logic to this, my powers can't work. I just have to believe they're here, without any solid proof of them existing..." Delight thought aloud warily before she looked up to see Joy sparring with the Endopath yet again. She seemed relentless and very unwilling to quit as she kicked to knock the Endopath to it's feet, her opponent seeming to have same objective as her. Lulu was right, Joy didn't appear to be questioning how this would have been or even question herself as to where her powers were coming from. And surely, there have to have been at some point a time where Joy didn't believe any of this was possible. So, if Joy could fight like this now,powers and all, why couldn't she?

Delight took a deep breath and pressed her eyes shut for a moment, knowing that she should've expected something like this to happen the moment she began to look for the candle. She had to help Joy, and that was exactly what she was going to do.

Delight started darting towards the Endopath, and without a single doubt, she leapt up and drove a punch straight into its face, and made it lose balance for a few moments as Delight took a second to stare at her fist in astonishment.

"Don't think, don't think." Delight reminded herself as she landed on the ground, turning to face Joy as she did this," How do we defeat it?"

"Tire it out and find a black star located somewhere on it! It could be virtually anywhere on the Endopath." Joy answered hastily as Delight set her sights back to the Endopath.

"A black star? I swear I saw something like that on it already but the question is...where?" Delight wondered to herself as she looked at the Endopath thoughtfully. The paddle-ball Endopath just continued to bounce the ball attached against itself as Delight tried to remember where she saw the black star.

"Gosh what are you waiting for? Just get rid of them already, I don't have all day!" Nijoux chimed furiously to the Endopath as took notice of it idly standing around.

Delight kept staring at the ball and suddenly, it came to her. Delight's eyes widened greatly and spun around to Joy.

"Get a hold of the ball's string and tie it around the mail box!" Delight instructed.

Though a look of question arose to Joy's face, she said nothing in response and simply nodded her head and she dashed towards the Endopath. The Endopath began to launch the ball attached to it towards Joy and Joy dodged the first two times. By the third time, she grabbed a hold of the Endopath's ball and ran with it towards the mail box and tangled it around the post. Joy was still curious to know what this was going to accomplish until she saw something peculiar on the back of the ball residing above the string.

"Look out below!" Delight suddenly shouted from above Joy as she held her hands in front of the Endopath, her fingers flickering a pale white light from them. Now Joy seemed confused once she got out of the way and watched Delight aim a beam of white light straight towards the star on the Endopath.

"What good does she think that will-?" Joy asked aloud before she impulsively shut her eyes and held her arms over her face to block the white light that had been coming from Delight's hands.

The light, though seemingly ineffective at first, was enough to erase some of the black star and cause most of what malicious energy it possessed to seep out. Once the energy had escaped from the black star, Delight glanced over Joy to find out what next to do.

Lulu spoke up almost immediately saying," All that's left is to purify it!"

Delight then returned her gaze to the Endopath, wondering how she was going to pull this off.

"You just need to concentrate!" Joy advised with Lulu nodding rapidly in agreement. Delight then stood up and exhaled a deep breath as she slowly closed her eyes in an attempt to shut out her surroundings. She tried to channel energy into her hands and slowly but surely, she felt the tips of her fingers starting to get warm with all the magic residing in them.

"Pretty Cure, Jovial Twinkle!" Delight shouted as the atmosphere around her turned pale pink in mid-sentence. The Endopath had been confronted by an array of pink, white and blue lights in an instant that had completely removed the black star on the Endopath, returning it into a normal paddle-ball.

Nijoux left without another word escaping her lips and another white charm could be found near to where the paddle-ball was. Delight went over to her neighbour's side to see to if she was alright while Joy picked up the charm.

"Something tells me we're going to have quite the collection of these soon..." Joy remarked as she held the charm up towards the light. Joy turned around to look at Delight, watching her transform back into Rumi as she awaited the little girl to wake up.

"...And now we're probably going to have to run through the whole Pretty Cure history with her." Joy said to herself before transforming back into Gogo.

When Rumi's neighbour woke up, Rumi walked her back to her place and told her she merely had a bad dream. When Rumi returned, Gogo seemed a little uneasy, fidgeting with her fingers as she prepared herself to give Rumi a little more background on this whole Pretty Cure thing. Just before Gogo was able to even begin her explanation, Rumi abruptly said,

"It's getting late, so maybe we'll save the explaining for another day."

Gogo's mouth hung open as she arched an eyebrow responding with," Are you sure? Because, I can only imagine how confused and concerned you are about-"  
"-Really, it's ok for now. Um, tomorrow's Friday and we've got a long weekend so, maybe you can tell me about it after school?" Rumi offered with Gogo nodding a somewhat hesitant nod in response. Gogo was just about to walk home before a thought came to her, and forced her to ask,

"Do you think you can continue to do this with me? Like, us being a team?" Gogo asked nervously. At first, Rumi was unsure of what to say. Clearly, this all seemed like a long-term thing as of right now. Not to mention a kind of thing where she would always have to be on stand-by since these attacks appeared to happen at random. She knew declining wasn't entirely great idea since it appeared that Gogo was all by herself in this and just before she was going to tell her she wasn't sure, she looked at Gogo and saw what almost seemed like panic in her eyes as she awaited a response.

"I can't guarantee I'll always be ready for a fight, but I'll try my hardest to be of help to you." Rumi answered, a wave of relief coming over Gogo once she heard this.

"Well, I see you tomorrow. Later Rumi." Gogo said with a yawn before clamping her mouth in realization what what just she did," I meant to say-!"

"It's fine." Rumi dismissed with a chuckle," See you tomorrow Mitsugi."

The next day, after Gogo's class with Ms. Hightower, Gogo stayed after class so they could have a discussion regarding the incidents regarding the Endopaths.

"It would only get harder from here if I have to do this alone." Gogo pointed out in a tired as she stretched her arms over her desk.

"But you're not alone anymore," Ms. Hightower pointed out," You've got Takai as an ally."

"But still, she's busy, can't you tell by how uncertain she sounded last night?" Gogo asked," Third-years are always busy. They have part-time jobs or studying for entrance exams, either way, Rumi even said she might not be able to help me all the time."

"Regardless of what she said, she's still a Pretty Cure and she knows that she's one of the few people who can put an end to all these attacks." Ms. Hightower stated, causing Gogo to narrow her eyes at her as she rested her head on her folded arms.

"No she doesn't. We haven't explained anything regarding the Pretty Cure to her yet." Gogo reminded her in a somewhat snide voice.

"Well, since you seem so sure about Rumi not being able to help as much as we'd like, how about you start looking for more potential candidates?" Ms. Hightower suggested.

"How about no?" Gogo retorted as she turned her head away from Ms. Hightower.

Ms. Hightower had a look of frustration on her face as she watched Gogo laze around and said," You know, this would all be easier if you actually interacted with your classmates."

Gogo then suddenly raised her head up and squinted at Ms. Hightower and asked in a low voice," What are you talking about?"

"You don't think I haven't noticed your behavior in class and how you never talk to anyone here during lunch?" Ms. Hightower pointed out," You didn't even know the names of those two girls from your club from the other day."

Gogo seemed a little fazed, surprised that her teacher knew that before saying," I do have a friend here at this school you know."

"Aside from Takai?" Ms. Hightower questioned, as if challenging Gogo.

Gogo nodded and motioned Ms. Hightower to follow her outside the classroom as she stood up from her desk. Gogo walked out of the class and lead Ms. Hightower in the school yard as Gogo began looking around for someone.

"She's usually out here at this time..." Gogo said as she searched around the campus, looking in every possible direction for this alleged friend. Ms. Hightower said nothing and waited for Gogo to find her friend, though doubtful that this friend actually existed.

"Ah, found her. That's my friend Yukina." Gogo said as she saw a third-year with dark blue hair in twin tails walking out from the school with another girl. Ms. Hightower looked in the direction Gogo was looking at and scoffed as she looked at the girl.

"Yukina Hashimoto? That's the student council president! Just because know her name doesn't make the two of you-!"

"Gogo!" Yukina exclaimed once she saw Gogo in the school yard as she ran towards her, with the girl she was talking to following behind awkwardly. Gogo seemed very smug as Ms. Hightower lowered her head.

"I haven't heard from you in a few days, how have you been?" Yukina asked as she smiled to Gogo. Her voice was kind and smile refused to leave her face, but it didn't feel fake in the slightest.

Though Gogo didn't sound as smug as she previously looked as she talked with Yukina, Ms. Hightower was still stunned to see that Gogo did make a friend at Nakagawa.

"The days are getting longer though and there's only a little over a month left until summer vacation. Have any plans for the break?" Yukina asked, unaware of the fact that her accomplice seemed a little impatient right now.

"No, not yet. Maybe I'll just..." Gogo trailed off, taking notice of the other girl's impatience for Yukina,"...I'm guessing you're busy this lunch."

Yukina's eyes lit up as she remembered she was running short on time as her gaze met her friend giving her an unimpressed look as she gripped a stack of papers in her hands tightly.

"Right, I had a meeting today so I'll see you around alright? Oh and by the way, this is Kai!" Yukina introduced cheerily as she waved a hand in front of the other girl, who wouldn't even give Gogo a smile as she looked over her watch. Kai just waved to her with eyes fixated on her watch before she saw Yukina walking away. Kai followed along quickly, leaving Gogo and Ms. Hightower by themselves.

"Told ya I had a friend." Gogo gloated as she pointed in the direction of Yukina. Ms. Hightower said absolutely and simply shook her head, only somewhat surprised by the fact that Gogo was being so prideful of having just _one_ friend.

"Maybe you should start focusing on befriending Takai." Ms. Hightower pointed out as the two of them began walking back to the classroom," You're allies now, and she's coming over to your place today. Perhaps you should try and get to know her.

Gogo seemed pretty uninterested as she laced her fingers behind her back and sighed as she said," It wouldn't work. We just aren't compatible."

"Compatible? You're both Pretty Cure." Ms. Hightower reminded her flatly as the entered the school.

"Yeah but, that's it. There's nothing else to bond us." Gogo thought aloud as she remembered how Rumi would light up in front of a camera, spewing out all her tips and tricks in regards to cosmetics. Though at school she was just as reclusive as Gogo. Unlike Gogo however, Rumi was a mysterious reclusive since despite being quiet, she seemed alluring in a way. Gogo could tell as whenever Rumi walked by herself, or even around Gogo, a few eyes would be drawn towards her, curious of her next move.

Gogo on the other hand, didn't often find people gravitate towards her because of how quiet she was. If anything, she was just treated as a backgrounder.

Looking out the window in class, Gogo thought to herself," I'm kinda just the NPC of everyone's lives."

Later after school, Gogo seemed extra stressed as she carried a large textbook in her hands, her bag already being filled to it's capacity. She yawned a somewhat large yawn as she walked out of the school. She awaited Rumi by the school gates and watched as group of students walked past her. Few seemed excited for this weekend, she even heard one group of kids chat about going to a karaoke bar. But, most students in her grade appeared to have been seeming just as tired as her, or evidently stressed as they walked past the school doors.

"Mr. Hisakawa's so mean! Making us have a mock exam next week! He's crazier than Hightower!" One boy exasperated as he frantically was looking over the pages in his textbook. He was walking alongside a girl and she said reassuringly," I'm sure it won't be that bad, it's mostly trigonometry right?"

"Yeah, but our class also has a history test on Tuesday, so in short...we're really screwed." The boy griped.

As the pair walked past Gogo, she looked at the textbook in her hand, it being the same one the boy was studying from as she wondered to herself," Maybe I could get a head start on studying now since trig's my weakest subject in Math."

Just before she opened the book, she heard a voice call out to her and she jumped in an instant.

"Sorry to scare you Mitsugi." Hanami chuckled as she walked up to Gogo, Michi following behind her," Have anything planned this weekend?"  
"I guess not." Michi interrupted as she noticed the textbook in Gogo's hands. Gogo smiled sheepishly and found herself unable to even formulate a response as she held the textbook tighter.

"Unfortunately...nope." Gogo replied awkwardly as she kept her gaze onto the book.

"That's too bad, well, I hope you have a good weekend anyways!" Hanami stated as she waved goodbye before walking off with Michi.

"Cripes that was weird, for a second it felt like stomach was going to knot up." Gogo thought to herself in embarrassment as she lowered her head.

As Hanami and Michi began walking down the street home, Michi suddenly asked Hanami," Why do you keep trying to talk to her, she isn't interested in making friends with you. You know that right?"

"Michi, everyone needs a friend. Wouldn't you agree?" Hanami asked innocently as they continued to walk.

Hanami seemed rather firm in her decision, not saying another word in regards to the subject as she walked ahead. Michi didn't want to say anything more, being worried that doing so might have angered Hanami.

"Mitsugi, are you ready to go?" Rumi asked as she approached Gogo with Gogo nodding swiftly in return," Is that bunny from yesterday at your place?"

"Nope, she just got here." Gogo answered as she opened her bag slightly, revealing a very squished Lulu.

"Oh, so she tags along with you to school to look for danger?" Rumi asked as she knelt down slightly to Lulu, waving hello.

Gogo bit back a laugh and looked away from Rumi saying," Sure, let's go with that."

Rumi frowned slightly at the sight of Lulu's discomfort and suggested," She could stay in my bag if you'd like."

Immediately and without a second thought, Gogo took Lulu out form the bag, nearly saying," Just take her." as she did. Rumi smiled toward Lulu and gently put her inside of the bag.

The two of them began walking in complete silence, with both parties tempted to say something every now and then, but they kept getting compelled not to. Many things had come across both Gogo and Rumi's minds, it was just the whole conversation thing that made them not want to go through with it. Few times though, they caught each other staring at the other and dropped their gaze in a near instant, leaving the walk as silence as ever.

 _"She must think I don't like her. It's no surprise though..."_ Gogo and Rumi thought to themselves, continuing to keep their gaze on the sidewalk _,"...I'm not even trying."_

Before they even realized it, they had reached Gogo's home. Lulu actually had to whisper that they had reached her place as Gogo looked up, alerted as she was in front of her house. Gogo cleared her throat and announced to Rumi," Welcome to my house."

Rumi chuckled lightly, though Gogo didn't seem to understand why as she opened the door as she called out," Mom, I'm home!"

Though she didn't receive any response from her mother and instead her one of her brothers reply to her instead.

"Mom's not coming home until midnight!" Satoru shouted back, causing Gogo to wear a look of suspicion on her face as she entered the living room, with Rumi following behind awkwardly.

"Says who?" Gogo questioned as she walked into the living room, finding Satoru, Ryu and Reo all crowded in front of the tv playing a video game.

"Listen for yourself." Ryu declared as he pointed to the phone with his eyes still glued to the tv screen. Hesitantly, Gogo walked over to the phone and listened to answering machine.

 _"Hey guys, your father and I aren't going to be home until around eleven-thirty, maybe later, so Gogo's making dinner. And don't make a mess of the living-room today, we have guests coming over tomorrow! See you soon."_ Ayami's voice relayed from the machine.

"Do you know where Saori is?" Reo asked as the three of them continued to play their game.

"Beats me." Gogo answered flatly before she felt her phone vibrate from inside her pocket. She retrieved her phone from out of her pocket and found a text from Saori reading,

 _"I'll be back from campus tomorrow there was just a big part of this group project that had to be done, ok?"_

"Oh, gosh..." Gogo said under her breath, cringing down at the text on her phone," So now I'm stuck with these brats for the rest of the night..."

Just then, the three boys spun around simultaneously and only then noticed they had a visitor today. In a matter of seconds they all scrambled towards Rumi and stared at her in curiously, with Satoru coming close to touching her hand though Gogo put herself in front of them before they could.

"This is a guest, so treat her like one and not a rag-doll." Gogo instructed sternly, with Rumi offering the boys a kind smile as she sat on the loveseat nearest to the five of them.

"Are you Gogo's friend?" Reo asked curiously as Rumi fidgeted with the pleats of her skirt.

"Um, yes I am." Rumi answered in a somewhat nervous tone as she tried making eye contact with the boys.

They continued to probe her with more and more questions and Gogo soon remembered why Rumi was here in the first place and quickly attempted to shoo the boys away from Rumi so the two of them could get down to business.

"But Gogo, today's the day you said you would help us on the level in our game." Satoru reminded her as he held out the video game controller.

"What leve-? Oh, yeah that's right, but...couldn't we save it for later? Me and Rumi have to work on some stuff." Gogo stated as she slowly inched towards the staircase with Rumi.

"But, the faster you beat the level, the faster we can beat the game." Reo pointed out with the two other brothers nodding in agreement.

Gogo rolled her eyes, knowing that any more attempts out of this would've been futile as she said," You guys sure drive a hard bargain sometimes, but fine, let's get this over with. Um, you can stay in my room for a little bit, if you want."

Rumi nodded attentively and walked up the stairs, before realizing she didn't know where exactly her room was.

"Second door from the right!" She heard Gogo shout from downstairs. Rumi then went to the room and took in her surroundings, surprised that Gogo had such a colourful and bright room. The warm shades of orange were pleasing to look at, as well as Gogo's yellow and magenta comforter that had a flowery print to it. The room itself seemed plain for the most part, with a few posters of inspirational quotes and beaches, though there was one thing that caught Rumi's eye. From the corner of Rumi's eye, she saw something of neon colours all condensed into something and she walked towards to it, figuring out that it was a lava lamp. Rumi stared at it for longer than an average person would as the lamp rested on Gogo's writing desk with Rumi perched on the chair in front of it.

"Um, Rumi? Would you like to start talking about the Pretty Cure now?" Lulu asked from inside Rumi's bag. Rumi was snapped back to Earth and looked over to Lulu as she nodded her head, walking towards the bed where Lulu was.

As Rumi sat on the bed, Lulu waited for her to begin asking questions, but instead Rumi simply said,

"I'm like...a chosen one, yes?" as she opened up the locket and revealed the holographic castle. Lulu was rather surprised that Rumi had been curious enough to open the locket herself, but she couldn't blame her as the whole Pretty Cure thing and what was going on was still a mystery to her.

"Yeah, something like that." Lulu answered as she looked at Rumi's locket suspiciously before explaining herself," The people of your world, and my world Euphorium, are in danger of losing something very important to them."

"What is it?" Rumi interrogated as she slowly closed the locket.

"Your happiness." Lulu answered, appearing to be a little confused as she looked at the expression on Rumi's face. It was calmer than she had expected it to be.

"Aren't we always in danger of losing our happiness, no matter what we face?" Rumi asked quietly.

"This is more like...losing your happiness forever. Well, your ability to feel happiness..." Lulu explained," My world, would run on happiness and all that happiness was cultivated into the flames of Everlasting Cheer, which are currently missing. Well, two of them aren't at least."

Rumi pulled out the Candle of Solace from her bag and stared at it for a few moments, the candle taking on the form of a twisted branch with a blue orb resting in it's center like Gogo's did.

"So, how did you know that I was the next Pretty Cure?" Rumi asked as she put the candle back into her bag," Was it because the candle was in my front yard?"

"Actually, no." Lulu answered, with Rumi looking rather suspicious in return," We saw your necklace and because many are unable to crank one out, we knew you'd be the next Pretty Cure. It was just luck that the candle was in your backyard."

Rumi seem to ponder on this for a few moments before delivering a reply to Lulu," But, I saw another girl from school with a locket like mine."

"Yeah, you mean Gogo, right?" Lulu questioned, with Rumi shaking her head in response.

"No, this was a different girl...I was even there when she got it from the machine. But, I don't remember what she looked like." Rumi confessed, feeling bad of being little to no help for Lulu," But, I'm sure our paths shall cross soon enough."

"Let's hope so..." Lulu responded quietly," So, before I explain anything more, are there questions you have now?"

"How did Gogo find her candle?" Rumi asked abruptly, catching Lulu off-guard since she really wasn't expecting that. At first, Lulu wasn't sure it she should've disclosed this information to Rumi first, knowing that Gogo herself had no idea how she got the candle. But then again, Gogo had yet to ask her about it. Rumi seemed much more curious than Gogo surprisingly and Lulu wasn't entirely sure if this was a good thing but, there didn't appear to be much harm in answering this unexpected question. But how to explain herself so that she wouldn't appear to hiding something, now that was the issue.

Taking a deep breath, Lulu debriefed," I didn't originally come here to search for the Pretty Cure. I came on my own terms and for my own reasons. Anyways, the ruler of Euphorium, Queen Aurelie had contacted me, knowing I was already here and explained everything that had happened to Euphorium during my absence. So, she requested I search for the Pretty Cure and I took up her offer. She had also told me that the candles would either be found by the Pretty Cure or me."

"Why you?" Rumi asked inquisitively, before realizing how rude her question sounded as she put a hand over her mouth shyly.

Lulu shrugged replying with," She wouldn't tell me. I guess she has her reasons though."

Rumi was silent for a few long moments, registering this information before she asked," And Gogo was the one to crank out her own locket from the machine right?"

Narrowing her eyes as she wondered just what Rumi was getting at, Lulu simply answered with," Nope. Me again."

Rumi slammed her hands onto the bedspread, inches away from Lulu and startled her a great amount as she jumped back in alarm. Rumi's green eyes were wide open as she stared at Lulu who was wondering just what on earth was currently going on in Rumi's head.

"Lulu, don't you understand?" Rumi interrogated, with Lulu only looking at her awkwardly as she waited for Rumi to finish her sentence," _You're_ the next Pretty Cure!"

Lulu bursted out into laughter and nearly fell backwards as she held her stomach, saying in between her laughs," How old do you think I am?"

"Hm, I'm not sure what human years are in translation to bunny years..." Rumi replied as she started counting on her fingers.

"I'm not an actual bunny and, my time to awaken as a Pretty Cure has long past. I must be genetically mutated in some way or form that the gachapon machines and candles have some sort of method of knowing that I'm not a Pretty Cure but rather...working with them." Lulu suggested as she put her hands on her hips.

"Like a symbiotic relationship?" Rumi asked thoughtfully, with just the thought of it sending shivers down Lulu's spine," Or, maybe it's just fate."

Lulu kept quiet and merely nodded in agreement at the idea as Rumi continued to speak," Fate that brought the three of us together, fate that brought two left-handed girls to become Pretty Cure."

It was surprising to see how much Rumi paid attention to detail, causing Lulu to remark," You never struck me as one who would pay close attention to things like that."

"Oh I notice a lot, like how Gogo may be left-handed, but she slings her bag over her right shoulder and how you seem to switch the sides on where you wear your adorable cupcake clip!" Rumi exclaimed, causing Lulu to blush a little bit.

"Finally!" The two of them heard Gogo shout from downstairs, causing the both of them to jump before hearing praise for Gogo from her brothers. Rumi walked over to the doorway and looked over to the stairs and turned back to Lulu saying,

"Maybe I'll just tell her I'll take my leave now." Rumi declared to Lulu just before she walked out of the room.

"Ok, I might head home too since I've got a ton of papers to grade." Lulu stated as she stretched her arms out, leaving Rumi with a puzzled look on her face as she wondered just what Lulu was talking about.

Rumi walked downstairs and found Gogo lying on the couch, taking deep breaths in and out with her eyes shut as her brothers were playing their game. Gogo seemed exhausted after beating that level, and while Rumi found it bewildering to see her get so drained from just playing a game, she acted as if it made sense to her that Gogo would've been tired from working so hard at pressing some buttons on a controller. At least, that's all playing video games appeared to be in Rumi's mind.

"Mitsugi?" Rumi said in a quiet voice in hopes that she wouldn't startle Gogo," I think I'll head home now."

Gogo opened one eye and before she could even think of responding, one of the boys opened their mouth, their eyes still on the screen of course as they said," I thought she was here to help you study."

Gogo crimsoned fiercely within a matter of moments and shot up from the couch, trying to dispel the idea as she clamored," I don't want you to have to stay longer than you wish and I didn't even say anything like that and-!"

"Sure you did, you said after this you're getting your friend to help you because she looks smart." Ryu muttered in a voice loud enough for both Rumi and Gogo to hear, causing Gogo to redden even more.

"I said no such thing!" Gogo claimed as she stood up, though the boys weren't paying much attention to her. She looked over sheepishly towards Rumi and saw that she didn't appear to be as uninterested in the idea as she expected.

Rumi then asked her," Would you like me to help you study?"

Gogo lowered her gaze, staring at her shoes as she tried to come to a decision on just what to say. Having a third-year help her would've been really great but, keeping someone like Rumi here against her will...it just didn't sit well with Gogo. So she sighed softly and responded keeping her gaze on the ground.

"Only if you'd be ok with it. I wouldn't want you to get in trouble with your parents or anything for staying out late..." Gogo stated in a voice that was just so soft and bashful, it almost sounded foreign to the trio of brothers behind her.

"It's fine. As long as I call my dad and tell him where I am, I should be alright to stay a little longer." Rumi explained in a reassuring voice as she took out her phone. Gogo then went upstairs to her room to spread her books out on her desk where she found her usual studying place preoccupied by someone else.

"Just what do you think you're doing?" Gogo asked in irritation as she saw Ms. Hightower with a stack of papers on her writing desk. Ms. Hightower then looked up from the desk as Gogo waited for a response.

"I have to hand these back, along with the essays from from last week to you guys on Tuesday like I promised, so I might as well start working on it now." Ms. Hightower stated in her defense as she returned to grading the papers, though Gogo still didn't seem fine with this.

"Yeah, but like that?" Gogo questioned as she leaned against the doorway, her arms crossed.

"It's hard holding a red ball-point pen in my other form. Plus, the pages are a whole lot harder to grade in that form too..." Ms. Hightower reasoned," I have to hold that pen as if it was a pool noodle and then I have to walk around the page just to mark it. And it's even worse if the assignment is double-sided!"

"Ok, fine. Just don't let my brothers see you." Gogo requested as she was about to go back downstairs to get Rumi. But Rumi was already at the top of the staircase.

"I can stay for a little longer, so I guess we can start studying?" Rumi asked as she walked into Gogo's room. Gogo nodded and as Rumi's eyes met Ms. Hightower, she nearly jumped and stared at her for a rather long time.

"Um, Mitsugi, what is Ms. Hightower doing in your house?" Rumi whispered to Gogo while waving towards Ms. Hightower in an uneasy manner, with Ms. Hightower waving back looking somewhat concern.

"She's the rabbit." Gogo answered tonelessly, not even looking Ms. Hightower as Rumi looked at Ms. Hightower in disbelief.

"You're kidding me, right?" Rumi asked as if begging Gogo to tell her what she wanted to hear rather than truthfully answer her question.

Gogo shook her head and just then, Ms. Hightower disappeared in a poof of smoke, leaving Lulu in her spot. Rumi looked at her in utter shock with her mouth agape as she gawked at the bunny standing on Gogo's computer chair.

"Well, I think I deserve a break and a nice hot London Fog~" Lulu declared as she laid on Gogo's computer chair.

Rumi stared at Lulu, still evidently unsettled by the sight and shook her head as she decided," Let's get to work on your studying now."

The two then started studying and Gogo showed Rumi and Lulu all the things she was having difficulty in. Since it was Math, Lulu was literally no help and returned to her grading once she transformed back into Ms. Hightower. Rumi was actually quite resourceful and helpful when it came to Math, though she claimed she cared too much for the subject. Maybe it was her calming tone that helped Gogo diminish herself of her stress and got her to clear her mind to get a better understanding of the subject at hand. It didn't feel condescending like it did with her teacher when studying with Rumi or even headache-inducing.

"It isn't just memorizing SOHCAHTOA, it just grasping the idea really." Rumi stated neutrally," Since if you don't know how to do it..."

"SOHCAHTOA won't be much help." Gogo finished sheepishly," Ok, makes enough sense. So then...what is your favourite subject?"

Rumi closed the book for a moment, but kept one finger in between the pages they were working from and answered," Probably History."

"Cool." Gogo commented stiffly, before the two of them started studying again.

 _"She's not as intimidating as before..."_ Gogo thought to herself as Rumi continued to help her study. Before today, she was still majorly uncomfortable around Rumi despite the fact that she was a Pretty Cure just like her. Knowing that Rumi was just a normal girl who happened to be two years older than her somewhat put her at ease.

"By the way," Rumi began as they nearly ended their study session," That lamp is really pretty."

Gogo turned her head over and saw the lava lamp sitting at her desktop and said," Thanks, it was a present from my sister. Do you like lava lamps?"

Rumi nodded her head, walking close towards it to get a better look at it," They're very interesting. I should get going though."

The two of them walked downstairs after Rumi collected her things for her departure and just before then, Gogo's brothers all confronted her at the door, the trio wearing displeased looks on their faces.

"When are we going to have dinner?" Reo asked, resulting in Gogo looking at them blankly before realizing she had yet to start making dinner at this late hour.

"Um..." Gogo trailed off unsurely, a vacant look in her eye as she tried to decide on what she could prepare.

"Can we have those instant ramen noodles, please?" Ryu pleaded with his hands folded in front of his chest. Then the three of them all start begging for the instant noodles.

"Nope, those things are gross and full of salt, we'll just have to find something else." Gogo concluded, with a wave of "Aws" coming from her brothers.

Rumi then spoke up after putting on her shoes and said," You know, you can always find other things to put into the ramen bowls to make it taste better, I'll have to show you my own "recipe" another time. Well, I'll see you next week ok Mitsugi?"

"Yeah, later I guess. Have a good night, Takai." Gogo stated, just before she was going to tend to her brothers as Rumi. But, Rumi stayed for an extra moment and looked at Gogo somewhat awkwardly, as if preparing herself to say something.

"You call me Rumi." Rumi declared kindly with a small smile before waving good-bye swiftly and walking out.

Gogo waved back, seeming to be zoned out so hard that one of her brothers had to snap her back to earth.

"Oh shoot! I forgot to tell her she could call me Gogo in return..." Gogo lamented with a sigh as she closed the door, returning her attention to her brothers as she started to dial a number on her phone," Guess we'll just have pizza tonight. But, you can't tell mom and dad about this, got it?"

The boys seemed ecstatic and nodded their heads vigorously as Gogo held the phone up to her ear. Gogo smiled a little, knowing that she wasn't going to need to stress telling the boys to keep a secret, since they'd do anything pizza.

 _"We're similar, but different...like two of the same card but belonging to different suits."_ Gogo thought as the phone started to ring _," Maybe I shouldn't be so quick to judge, maybe Rumi and I will become better friends than I thought..."_


	6. Ghosts? In our school?

Days had passed since the day Rumi came over to Gogo's place, and Gogo hadn't had much of a chance to talk to Rumi all that much ever since then. They were both considerably busy with schoolwork this week and they hadn't faced an attack from Melancholy in a week. While it felt nice to think that Melancholy was taking a break to accommodate to the girls' busy lives, Gogo knew that such a thought couldn't be true and chances were they were just waiting for the perfect time to strike. The thing that bothered Gogo most was worrying that her next battle could easily be last. But of course, every time she thought of that, she reminded herself she had a teammate now. It was no longer up to her alone to put an end to Melancholy. Though Gogo had to admit, playing the waiting game was driving her edge.

During the end of Gogo's club session, Gogo tried opening her locket and made sure no one was watching, since looking at the little holographic inside had started to bring Gogo at ease whenever she looked at it. She looked around and made sure no one was watching. It seemed to coast was clear, but then Gogo got quite distracted as she tried to open the locket as the chatter of her club-mates filled her ears. It got so bad she found herself paying attention more to their quiet conservation rather than opening the locket and soon enough, she gave up and relinquished her attention over to the conversation amongst her club-mates a few feet away. Though she basically eavesdropping, she at least pretended to be folding her gym uniform into her bag as her club mates continued their conversation.

"Did you guys hear about the ghost couple that plays the piano in the music room during the night?" One girl asked Hanami and Michi, with the former nodding rapidly in return.

Hanami was sitting on the bench in front of her and nervously answered," Yeah! I hear that they can only be heard at the dead of night, when no one but a few teachers and students are around!"

"Why would anyone be here in the dead of night?" Michi asked flatly as she arched an eyebrow," And how do you know it's a ghost couple? It all sounds fishy to me."

The girl and Hanami looked at Michi angrily and the girl said to her," That's because those students had forgot stuff like their textbooks and homework in their classrooms! And some teachers even stay around late to grade papers in class!"

"And it's totally a couple because one person is playing the piano while the other is humming to the tune!" Hanami declared loudly.

"Couldn't it just be the same person?" Michi asked suspiciously.

"No!" The girl and Hanami responded in unison, with the former adding," Because a girl in second-year heard the sound last week and wanted to check who was in there. So bravely, she went and swung open the door and saw a pair of ghosts! A boy and a girl!"

But Michi was as skeptic as ever, saying,"So then, have any teachers reported to see this alleged pair of ghosts?"

"Well, I heard Mr. Natsume heard the piano playing and Ms. Honjo and Ms. Hightower...but they wouldn't confirm if it was there a pair of ghosts or not!" Hanami exasperated with a sigh following after.

"Hightower saw a ghost?" Gogo asked quiet sounding uninterested but being quite the opposite as she walked out of the change room.

As Gogo walked out from the change rooms, she heard more and more talk about the phantom couple from other students she passed in the hall. Apparently, this was a bigger rumor than she thought it to be. Many kids relayed the same things that the girls were talking about in the change rooms but others provided her with new information like how the fear of the ghost couple had been so bad for some students that they couldn't even step inside the music room for their club meet. Gogo had yet to see the school discuss a rumor so much like this one. As long as she was in the school, she couldn't escape it. And she was sure getting tired of hearing about it by the time she reached the school's gates. Just as she was about to set foot off the school grounds, she heard a voice call for her.

"Mitsugi!"

Gogo spun around and found Rumi approaching her. Stiffly, she smiled and waved and Rumi smiled back once she reached Gogo.

"How have you been these last few days?" Rumi asked as she pointed to a bench near to the two of them. Gogo followed her over to the bench and the two of them sat down.

"I've been alright, what about you?" Gogo, heard a painful ring of awkwardness echo in her tone," Did you hear about that ghost rumor?"  
Gogo was hoping to have escaped the rumor once she was far enough from the school and pulling into her conversation was the last thing she wanted to do, but thanks to the kids from school, it was all she was thinking about.

Rumi chuckled a little awkwardly and said," Most of the kids in my class were talking about it today. I'm not sure if I believe them though, it's just a rumor anyways."

"Well, I certainly don't think there's a ghost couple at the school." Gogo grumbled, annoyed with herself for even bringing the subject up.

Just then, the two of them heard a pair of voices shouting at each other on the other end of the school yard. Curiously, they looked over a saw a boy in first year getting shouted at by a second year girl holding a rolled up newspaper in one hand.

"I'm serious Hiroshi, your photos aren't getting better at all. I couldn't even tell that this was taken at the school, let alone the music room!" The second year girl scolded as she held a photograph that was held inside the rolled-up newspaper and handed it to Hiroshi, "I think we should have Tadeshi take over your role and you could just-"

The first-year Hiroshi then claimed,"-But I did see the ghost couple! But, I could only open the door a creak and just when I was about to open it fully the girl humming to the tune shrieked and I kinda sorta ran off. But you can't really blame me for the photo's quality, I mean since it was night time and I only brought my phone and not my actual camera and-"

"It's these kind of shots that are making our paper flop! Either you get a better shot of it by tomorrow night or you going to be revising articles from now on." The second year girl declared as she walked off back into the school, leaving Hiroshi alone with the photograph.

"I'm doomed." Hiroshi sighed to himself as he looked at the photo while sitting himself down on the ground. Just before he was about to take a closer look at the shot, he felt the gaze of somebody on him and turned his head to the right, finding Gogo and Rumi spying on him. He looked closer at Gogo and a few moments later, a devious smile came to his face.

"You girls, help me exploit the ghost couple of Nakagawa!" Hiroshi declared as he briefly pushed up his glasses while pointing to the two of them.

"Pass." Gogo said uninterestedly before Hiroshi walked up towards her.

"And in exchange, you can receive an embarrassing photo of any of your enemies, or even friends!" Hiroshi bargained as he fished out a couple of photos from his bag while walking with the two of them," You can choose from Hashimoto Yukina getting sprayed by a soft drink, Torino Michi tripping over her shoelaces, or even a very, very exclusive one of-!"

"What part of 'pass' don't you understand?" Gogo interrupted as she pushed the photos out of her face.

"Wait, there's a really good one in here I know you wouldn't be able to resist though!" Hiroshi exclaimed as he handed Gogo a photo, one that really had her in shock.

"You wouldn't want anyone thinking you're a teacher's pet would you?" Hiroshi asked as he held out the picture of herself and Ms. Hightower sitting on one of the benches after class while Gogo was eating leftovers from her lunch. But being seen as teacher's pet was the least of her worries when her eyes traveled to the Candle of Intrigue peeking out from her bag. If there came a day where she had to fight an Endopath as a Pretty Cure and use the candle in front of her classmates, Hiroshi would have proof that she was Cure Joy.

Now it was Gogo's turn to reason as she said," Well, why do you even want to be in the newspaper club anyways? It's full of those kinda of kids you don't even remember seeing in class plus that one girl was really mean to you just then and-"

"-I don't care! I'll do anything to take pictures for the club! Even though I keep bringing down the paper with my photos, this club means a lot to me! And I only have this one chance, I can't afford to screw this up." Hiroshi interrupted, before Rumi chimed in.

"But, why do we have help you?" Rumi questioned, with Hiroshi looking towards the side sheepishly in response.

"The president of the newspaper club Mari will probably believe me if two other people can back me up in the case that I don't take the shot..." Hiroshi confessed, sounding a bit embarrassed.

"Haven't you got evidence from anyone else though?" Rumi asked.

"Well, I tried talking to the second-year girl who had claimed to have seen the two of them, but no one has seen her at school ever since that night." Hiroshi explained," Some said that her body's been possessed by the girl and now their just waiting for a boy to come. Another reason as to why I can't go by myself."

 _"No ghost is going to want to possess this kid's body."_ Gogo thought to herself as she narrowed her eyes on the lanky Hiroshi," But you know it wasn't just the girl who saw them. Apparently a few teachers had heard the couple, maybe there's a chance that one of them saw the couple."

"This is news to me," Hiroshi said quietly in bewilderment," But which teachers got a chance to hear them?"

"I believe it was Mr. Natsume, Ms. Honjo and Ms. Hightower." Rumi debriefed as she listed the three of them off of her fingers," But, Mr. Natsume hasn't said anything about the ghost couple and refused to tell anyone about the incident in my class."

"Stubborn huh? For now, so that we don't waste any time, let's move down the list to Ms. Honjo." Hiroshi declared, with Gogo and Rumi appearing to still be a bit hesitant to work with him. It was either that or Hiroshi could've ended up doing something like blow up the picture of Gogo and Ms. Hightower and post it around the school.

"So, shall we begin?" Hiroshi asked, sounding a little more upbeat now as he pointed towards the school. Gogo and Rumi figured they didn't really have a choice in their situation and unwillingly followed Hiroshi.

Hiroshi led the three of them as he started to ramble about more, lesser heard rumors about the ghost couple and how others in his club tried to look for the couple at night, but had no luck in finding them.

"Even Mari had gone searching for the couple and after me, she's been the closest to get a view of them from our club! But, she didn't see them in the end of course." Hiroshi explained, having a hint of arrogance detectable in his voice, likely due to the fact that he came closer to seeing the couple than the club president herself.

Hiroshi suddenly then stopped in front of a classroom and pointed to it saying," This is where Ms. Honjo can be found after school since this is where her last class is held."

Hiroshi then knocked on the door, and a voice that sounded as if it belonged to a woman said," Come in."

The class room was very much empty for the most part, all the seats in class empty and not a single sound being heard within the classroom except for maybe the faint voices of kids outside as the window was open. Ms. Honjo sat in her desk and had a stack of papers in front of her. She was tall, but she seemed quite tense as she offered the three of them a nervous smile and gestured them to sit down in the desks in the front row. Hiroshi leaned against one desk, Gogo sat on top of another one, and Rumi simply sat in the chair of the desk closest to the window.

"What can I do for you three?" Ms. Honjo asked as she pushed the papers to the side. She didn't recognize any of them and so, her biggest fear right was for them to ask her about the incident that happened last week. That was all everyone at school seemed to be curious about right now.

"Ms. Honjo, we heard that you had heard something...suspicious last week when you stayed late at the school." Hiroshi began as he took out a notepad from his bag along with a pen," And we just wanted to know, did you get a chance to see it?"

Ms. Honjo drew out a large sigh as she said," I'm going to tell you the same thing as I told everyone else. I didn't get to see any ghosts and that's because weren't any to begin with."

"Oh, come on! Everyone knows you were one of the three teachers who heard the ghosts!" Hiroshi whined stubbornly," At least tell us if they were bad musicians!"

"How would that prove if they were ghosts or not?" Gogo muttered under her breath with her eyes narrowed.

"Well think about it. If they were just students, they could be playing off-key but if they were ghosts they'd have all the time in the world to practice and they'd probably be pretty good." Rumi explained to Gogo quietly.

"Ghosts aren't real and I'm afraid that you three are wasting your time trying to find any proof of them being real." Ms. Honjo concluded as she went back to her grading.

"But even I can tell you don't believe that!" Hiroshi shot back as he pointed to Ms. Honjo's hands," If you really didn't believe in the ghost couple being real, your hands wouldn't be shaking as much as they are right now."

Ms. Honjo's stared down at her hands sheepishly as she said," That's just because it's cold in here! Look, you're a part of the newspaper club right? If you really want to see whether or not this ghost couple exists, you should just go looking for them yourself."

"I already did." Hiroshi answered quietly in his defense, his head now hung," But I couldn't see them and in the case that I do see them, my president might not believe me even with a picture."

Hiroshi rubbed his eyes with his hands, and looked up to Ms. Honjo his eyes all watery now," Please, if I screw this up I might lose my role in my club. I might even get kicked out of the club at this rate!"

Ms. Honjo had a guilty look written all over her face now as she put her hands in front of Hiroshi in an attempt to calm his down," But, there's not much to say. I mean, all I heard was a really low humming from what sounded like a young girl and the sound of the piano playing. The person playing the piano was playing as if they were in a rush, and it sounded quite off with the humming. It was hard to tell that they were playing the same tune."

"Could you recognize which song it was?" Rumi then questioned.

Ms. Honjo tried thinking, and even tried to at least hum what she could remember of the tune but with no avail she merely responded with," The tune was slow, and because of how distorted the two of them sounded together, it was extra hard to identify what song it could've been. I'm sorry, but that's all I can really say."

"It's ok. It's been a big help though, so thank you." Hiroshi said as he put the notepad and pen in his bag. He walked out after saying goodbye to Ms. Honjo and Gogo and Rumi followed him out.

As Gogo and Rumi followed Hiroshi outside of the class, they both stared at Hiroshi with different expressions on their faces. Rumi had a look of pity on hers and Gogo seemed to skeptic as she looked at Hiroshi.

"I feel like you guys are glaring holes into me, what gives?" Hiroshi asked, sounding slightly uninterested.

"You weren't really crying back there." Gogo stated, surprising Rumi but receiving no reaction from Hiroshi whatsoever.

"What makes you makes say that?" Hiroshi asked, still appearing to be uninterested in Gogo's theory.

"I can see the bottle of eye-drops in your back pocket." Gogo pointed out tonelessly, causing Hiroshi to stop walking for a moment.

Gogo and Rumi awaited uneasily for Hiroshi's next move and he turned around to face the pair, wearing the indifferent look on his face before it shifted into a more sheepish one as he said,

"At this point, I'll do anything to stay in the newspaper club."

"So, you pretend to fake cry moments after you practically shout at her? You're a total snake!" Gogo shouted while Hiroshi tried calming her down," That also means you've had them on you the entire day you weirdo!"

"Hey I'll have you know that I actually do need them!" Hiroshi yelled back to her," I have a permanently scratched cornea so sometimes my eyes dry out!"

"Aw, you poor two-faced snake." Gogo countered in a somewhat bratty tone as she rolled her eyes," Rumi I say we just ditch him while we can, what do you think?"

"Hey you can't do that! If you do, I'll show everyone that picture of you and Hightower and I'll even photoshop it to make it look like you two or at the mall or something!" Hiroshi threatened, but at this point, Gogo really couldn't take being around him right now.

Rumi, however, was too busy looking at something going on outside as she pressed her face against the window and said to herself quietly," What is Mr. Natsume doing?"

Gogo and Hiroshi joined Rumi in looking out the glass window and saw Mr. Natsume trying to shoo away none other than Mari who appeared to be interviewing him. At least, trying to interview him.

"She's trying to get answers about the ghost couple..." Hiroshi observed," Come on, I wanna get a better look at this!"

Hiroshi then bolted off and Rumi was about to chase after him, but Gogo grabbed the collar of her uniform before she could. Rumi looked at her wondering as to why she did that and Gogo held a small envelope with a bunch of photos inside, a devious smile on her face now.

"We don't need to help him anymore." Gogo declared, with a mischievous chuckle escaping her lips.

Rumi still seemed rather confused though as she asked," But didn't he keep his blackmailing pictures inside a plastic bag?"

Gogo had a blank look in her eye before she began frantically searching through the envelope for that picture of her and Ms. Hightower. Rumi then grabbed a hold of Gogo's hand and followed Hiroshi in the direction he ran towards.

They found Hiroshi standing beside the corner of the school building with a cupped hand around his ear as he tried listening to the conversation.

"Please Mr. Natsume, everyone knows that you had heard the ghost couple. Could you at least describe what you heard? Do you think it really could be a ghost?" Mari asked, seeming rather anxious being in Mr. Natsume's presence as she kept her eyes on her notepad. No one could really blame Mari for being so tense, considering that Mr. Natsume did appear to be rather intimidating. He was probably the tallest teacher at the school, towering over both students and teachers alike, and none of his own students could ever recall seeing him smile.

"Mari's really brave- I mean, stupid, for trying to get answers from Mr. Natsume, considering he kept his mouth shut about the ghost couple this entire week." Hiroshi whispered, as he continued to watch from the corner of the building.

"Write this down in your notepad. there aren't any ghosts at this school and you kids are just wasting your time trying to find any." Mr. Natsume declared sternly as he walked past Mari, not even listening to her as she tried calling him back.

"Dead-end." Mari groaned to herself as she scribbled against the notepad in frustration," Time to go ask Ms. Honjo I guess."

Mari started walking towards the front entrance of the school and Hiroshi started to try and remember who else they had left to interrogate.

"Guess this just leaves Ms. Hightower." Hiroshi declared neutrally, though the thought of it drove Gogo and Rumi on edge.

Gogo then thought to herself worriedly _," There's no way she would transform into that at school...she's smarter than that, right?"_

 _"It sure would be weird to walk in on Ms. Hightower as Lulu, I wonder what we should do in the event of that happening? Tell him the truth or pretend we don't see her and make him think he's seeing things?"_ Rumi wondered in her head absently.

As the three of them walked towards Ms. Hightower's classroom, the two girls seemed reasonably nervous as Ms. Hightower could be unpredictable in her own little way and while they expected that she wouldn't do so much as to transform in an empty classroom where anyone could've barged in at random, they knew it was best not to keep their hopes up.

 _"We'll say it's her pet rabbit and that she brought it to class today because she had to bring it to the vet immediately after school otherwise they wouldn't make it to their appointment. Even if that's sounds fishy we can work with it. Or maybe we say she's a stuffed animal from one of the girls in class."_ Gogo thought to herself as beads of sweat started forming at her temples.

The three of three reached the class room where Ms. Hightower would usually be found in after school and just before Hiroshi was going to open the door, Gogo quickly took hold of his hand. Hiroshi's eyes widened once he found his right hand in Gogo's vice grip as she knocked on the door.

"Ms. Hightower, are you in there?" Gogo asked looking as if she was ready to wince before saying," We have someone here who'd like to interview you."  
No response came for a few moments, and the two girls awaited anxiously for a response, wishing that they weren't going to hear Lulu's child-like, high-pitched voice give them a response.

"I'm about to leave, so you better make it quick." Ms. Hightower said as she opened the door. Somehow, a tremendous wave of relief came to both Gogo and Rumi as they met eyes with Ms. Hightower and not Lulu as they had previously expected.

Hiroshi didn't waste a single second as he whipped his pen and notepad while saying," We've heard that got a chance to hear the ghost couple. Can you confirm whether or not you indeed heard them play? And even maybe disclose whether or not you've seen them as well?"

"Hiroshi, don't you think you're pushing it a bit?" Rumi asked quietly.

"You better not fake any tears again." Gogo warned as she pointed a finger towards him.

"Relax, I'm not going to pull that on someone as smart as Ms. Hightower. She's much too good for those tricks." Hiroshi claimed as he looked towards Ms. Hightower," So, we would like to know what exactly happened the night you stayed after school you stayed after school."

"What's in it for me?" Ms. Hightower questioned flatly as she arched an eyebrow.

"The satisfaction of knowing that a kind, gracious teacher like yourself helped out a boy in need who's about to lose something very important if he can't get evidence leading to the ghost couple." Hiroshi asked, his tone sounding extremely fake to Gogo and Rumi. The two of them appeared rather appalled with Hiroshi for using a different tactic of manipulation and then they glanced over to Ms. Hightower who didn't seem to be exactly buying into his act.

 _"Flattery huh? He won't get anywhere with tha_ -" Ms. Hightower thought to herself, but then she felt something weird, as if her heart sank at the sight of Hiroshi, thought she didn't quite understand why. She knew he was being rather insincere with the praise he had been dishing out, but maybe there was more to that last statement of his than she realized.

"Fine, I'll tell you about...my encounter with the phantom couple!" Ms. Hightower declared, sounding a whole lot more enthusiastic now and exciting Hiroshi quite a bit.

"It was last week Tuesday and I remembered that I had left a folder full of assignments I had to grade for the next day at the school. So, I went into the classroom I last taught in and took it out from the desk. As I left the class room and walked towards the main entrance, I could hear the sound of the piano playing from across the hall. At first, I thought I was probably hearing things, but then, as I inched towards the music room, the playing didn't stop. But just before I took one last step and opened the door, I ended up stepping on a pencil and slipped and suddenly, the playing stopped." Ms. Hightower explained, leaving Hiroshi in awe since he hadn't been able to pry this much information out of the other teachers.

"And you were so close too!" Hiroshi griped as he squeezed his pencil feeling both overwhelmed and frustrated," Didn't you at least open the door?"

"I did but no one was there." Ms. Hightower confessed under the belief that this last piece of information would disappoint Hiroshi though it did the exact opposite.

"Only ghosts would be able to do something like that!" Hiroshi exclaimed ecstatically," Thanks for your time today, I'm going to go get new batteries for my camera for tomorrow. I'll see you two tomorrow night."

"Why are you guys working with him?" Ms. Hightower asked once Hiroshi was out of earshot.

Gogo sighed and answered with," He's blackmailing us. But there's no way we're going with him tomorrow night to see if the ghost couple is real."

"Somehow, I feel like he will forget about us by the time he sees the ghost couple." Rumi stated sheepishly.

"In any case however, I think you two should tag along with him. Since it might not actually be a ghost, but something much worse..." Ms. Hightower advised," After all, from a logical standpoint, what else could it be?"

Double-blinking with a blank look on her face Gogo answered with," Just a recording?"

"No, an Endopath!" Ms. Hightower corrected.

"Oh, you mean _that_ kind of logical standpoint." Gogo replied flatly," But, can an Endopath really take on the form of a person? Or even a couple?"

"We don't know yet, but it is a possibility." Ms. Hightower explained," But it might not even be that Endopath is taking the guise of the couple but rather something else in the room, such as the piano."

"So, do you really think there's a chance that there's an Endopath inside the music room?" Rumi probed nervously," But if that was the case, wouldn't you have been able to like...at least, sense it or something?"

Ms. Hightower seemed a bit unprepared to answer this question, though it was beginning to look like she wasn't ever going to prepared for questions from Rumi. But there really wasn't much point beating around the bush for this one.

"It's just that, it's kinda harder to distinguish the different types of sadness between an Endopath and regular humans here. My ability to detect an Endopath is kinda clouded because of this. In Euphorium, it was much easier." Ms. Hightower responded in dismisal," But, I'm curious to know...why were you two looking so nervous when you came in here with that kid?"

Gogo and Rumi exchanged expressions and then wore an unimpressed look that one could read as "Isn't it obvious?" towards Ms. Hightower.

"We thought that you may've been transformed as Lulu since no one was around and you did have the whole class room to yourself." Rumi explained with a forced chuckle with Ms. Hightower nodding thoughtfully in response.

"I see, that makes sense..." Ms. Hightower commented with Gogo and Rumi nodding in agreement," Not! How long do you guys think I've been keeping up with this alter ego thing? I wouldn't be as dim-witted as to let myself be seen by a random student or teacher."

"I guess we both kinda forgot that we known you as Ms. Hightower all this time to think even think that you wouldn't do something like that. But, you can't really blame us since during that night at Gogo's place you were switching between forms a lot while Gogo's brothers were just downstairs." Rumi reminded her promptly, leading Ms. Hightower to cross her arms as she said,

"Well, there weren't in truth that many people around compared to how many people are act the school and prolonged times of being in human form can get to me after awhile. Especially at the end of the week." Ms. Hightower explained," Plus, Gogo somehow strikes me as a very cautious, near secretive person so the idea that I could've been caught was the least of my worries that night."

Gogo gulped down and scrutinized her teacher, thinking to herself," _She's not the only one at this school who thinks this."_

"Anyways, we should all tag a long with Hiroshi tomorrow night to see if there really is a ghost couple, or an Endopath...or, anything else in between." Ms. Hightower affirmed, with Gogo and Rumi nodding hesitantly in agreement, forcing Ms. Hightower to say," Come on! Worst case scenario, it's just another Endopath. But, something tells me this might be nothing more than a prank pulled by some students. And if it does happen to be another Endopath, it's not a big deal! You guys know what you're dealing with, for the most part when it comes to facing them, unlike ghosts."

Gogo and Rumi pretended to be relaxed at the thought, but they were feeling much more distressed as Ms. Hightower tried to encourage them.

 _"That isn't very reassuring..."_ Gogo and Rumi thought to themselves.

The next night, the three of them had been reassembled in front of the school, with Lulu tagging along in Gogo's bag. Hiroshi brought his camera, a whole set of extra batteries and a back-up memory card for tonight, since he decided wouldn't let anything inconvenience him from getting a shot of the ghost couple.

Rumi and Gogo both seemed reasonably tired as they walked into the school, with flashlights in hand and the latter yawning loudly as she said, "This better not take all night, otherwise my parents are going to kill me." She then stretched out her arms and muttered to herself," I was lucky enough to have left the house without them knowing since they're working late again."

Gogo then looked at Rumi with a puzzled look on her face as she asked," So how were you able to leave your place at this hour on a school night?"

Rumi then answered with, "Oh, well, I was planning to tell my dad that I left a textbook at school but he went out to get something from the convenience store and I couldn't really wait for him so-"

"You snuck out?!" Gogo interjected, much louder than intended as Hiroshi spun around, looking quite annoyed and startled as he pointed his flashlight towards Gogo.

"Will you two be quiet? You'll scare away the ghosts!" Hiroshi reprimanded as he continued to walk.

Gogo seemed just as annoyed with him for blinding her temporarily with his flashlight while Rumi seemed a bit regretful in her actions as her gaze fell to the ground. So, to distract herself, she started looking around the school halls as they walked. The school indeed felt very different at night, with no one around to see the moonlight streaming through the windows. It felt enchanting really, and it made her wonder just how many high-school had ever gotten the chance to walk through the school at night. As they passed a classroom that was no longer in use, she wondered what decade the alleged ghost couple were from. Perhaps they were new to the whole ghost thing and didn't really grasp the supposed rules of the ghost world and powers. It would've been interesting to have met them while they were in the middle of trying to figure out how not to get caught.

"Must be novice ghosts." Rumi mused in a soft voice while Hiroshi and Gogo stared at Hiroshi's camera. It was heavy and the lens was huge but for some reason, Gogo felt as if something didn't add up as Hiroshi held the camera in his hands, looking more worried than excited as he fidgeted with the camera's lens.

"When you'd get the camera?" Gogo finally asked, startling Hiroshi slightly as he was too busy staring at the camera.

"It's actually my older brother's..." Hiroshi said sheepishly, his eyes widening as he realized what he just implied," It's not what you think though! He let me borrow it! But, he got it for his birthday last month from our parents, so if anything happens to it...it'll be on me."

Gogo nodded as she listened as asked out of nowhere," How long have you known Mari?"

Hiroshi wasn't even the slightest bit surprised at the question as he turned on the camera to check the battery percentage as he vacantly said," Longer than you'd think. We're cousins and we've been doing stuff like this years now. Except back then, it was only for fun. So every story made the cut and every shot was a good one. She's gotten strict though, ever since she became the president of the newspaper club. The guy who she wants to replace me with even said he would've felt guilty taking my position and said something about Mari being a changed person."

"Maybe being president got to her head." Gogo suggested with a shrug.

Hiroshi then began playing around with the macro function on the camera as he replied," Perhaps so."

All of a sudden, the group then heard the piano playing as they got closer to the music room, it appeared whoever was playing the piano had just started as just a few moments ago, it was dead silence in the halls. When the playing began and rang through the halls of the school, Gogo nearly shrieked, though Hiroshi pressed his hand over her mouth before she could.

"Now's our chance!" Hiroshi prompted as he ran to the side of the music room's door.

Though it was rather quiet with the piano playing, the sound of someone humming could definitely be heard when the three of them listened close enough. The humming sounded somewhat shaky. It sounded as if another person was there and they were chuckling away at the other person's humming.

"Aika, come on, I'm dying to hear you sing already." A masculine voice said as the piano stopped playing.

"It's the ghost couple!" Gogo and Hiroshi yell-whispered in fright while Rumi looked beyond towards the end of the hall. Something, or rather, someone caught her eye. Despite the fact that the figure was far and hidden in the shadows, Rumi could identify the figure from the camera and newspaper they held in their hands.

"Mari?" Rumi whispered, knowing that Mari of course wouldn't hear her.

"What are you waiting for? Just open the door already!" Gogo urged in a somewhat loud whisper as Hiroshi stared fearfully towards the door knob.

"I don't think I can do this anymore!" Hiroshi confessed with his eyes pressed shut.

Gogo seemed greatly enraged as she responded with," We didn't come all this way for nothing!"

That last part of her sentence appeared to be louder than intended and suddenly, the piano playing stopped again.

"You scared them away." Hiroshi declared bitterly with his brows furrowed as he glared at Gogo.

"It's not like you were going to open the door." Gogo reminded him as she stuck her tongue out at him while opening the door.

As Gogo and Hiroshi both walked in, Rumi stared into the doorway, not really seeing anything, but trying to figure out whether or not her ears were playing tricks on her as she double-blinked.

"Was I the only one who heard footsteps when the playing stopped?" Rumi asked, near inaudible to Gogo and Hiroshi as they started to inspect the room for any traces of the ghosts.

Outside of the music room, Mari could be seen tip-toeing towards the room as she held her camera tight.

"If Gogo didn't yell like that we would've had the shot by now." Hiroshi said flatly as he turned the flashlight of his phone towards the bottom of a table.

Gogo then smacked Hiroshi over the head with a rolled-up script as she said," As if! We would've still been out there because you're too scared to look for the ghosts."

Hiroshi seemed a bit irritated as he rubbed the back of his and glowered towards Gogo again as he said," Hey we've at least made this far didn't-?! Uh, Gogo what are you looking at?"

His flashlight had been directed to the corner of the room as he held it at his waist and it under the light appeared to be a pair of students huddling close beside each other. Nervously, Hiroshi directed the flashlight to where their faces should've been and as Gogo and Hiroshi saw their faces, they screamed in an instant.

"It's the ghost couple!" Gogo and Hiroshi clamored as the latter dropped the flashlight.

Rumi just shook her head in objection as she got a better look at the couple, who seemed pretty alive to her.

"Nope, they're just third-years." Rumi disclosed as she flashed her phone's light to them," Eiza and Murakami right?"

Hiroshi still seemed frightened though now it appeared to be for another reason as he marched up towards the couple as examined them to see if they actually were ghosts. Hiroshi pinched the boy's skin and he muttered 'Don't do that' and Hiroshi screamed again.

"Just what were you two thinking?" Hiroshi wailed as he gawked at the couple.

The boy, Eiza, then looked over to Murakami with a loving look in his eye as he said," Aika and I aren't going to be able to see each for much longer because she's switching schools at the end of the term, so we thought it would be nice to hang out hear by ourselves while we still had some time left."

"Didn't the thought of just going on a regular date ever occur to you, you nasty third-years!" Hiroshi spat viciously as he glared angrily towards the couple.

"Hey, Hiroshi relax! They didn't mean to cause any harm." Gogo said in the couple's defense.

"Yeah but, now...I don't have a shot to show Mari." Hiroshi declared somberly as he held the camera so tight in his hands that his knuckles turned white. Rumi and the couple seemed to feel sorry for Hiroshi, while Gogo crossed her arms and adverted her gaze from him.

"That's ok, you were meant for better things anyway..." A voice that sounded a lot like Nijoux's echoed in the room as Nijoux appeared hovering near to the ceiling of the class.

Rumi motioned the couple and Hiroshi to leave and while the couple was successful in escaping, Hiroshi had been cornered by Nijoux within an instant. Nijoux then slapped a black star onto Hiroshi's forehead and announced as she held a songbook in her free hand,

"Endopath, turn his cheer into absolute fear!"

The songbook was released from her grip and was morphed into a monstrous looking gigantic songbook, crying out," Endopath!"

"Don't you think it's a bit too late at night for this stuff?" Gogo attempted to reason with a yawn in between as she and Rumi held up their lockets high.

"Pretty Cure, turn that frown upside down!" Gogo and Rumi said in unison as yellow, white and pink lights flooded out from their lockets and around them.

"A warm ray of sunshine to brighten up your day, Cure Joy!" Joy introduced.

"A soothing sensation to bring you at peace, Cure Delight!" Delight introduced.

The Endopath stomped towards them and Gogo looked over to Delight briefly and said," Let's end this as quick as possible, ok?"

Delight nodded in affirmation and the two darted towards the Endopath in a matter of seconds. The Endopath tried it's hardest to land an attack on the Cures, and despite it's best efforts, it wasn't landing a single attack.

However, the Cures also weren't landing any attacks either as it seemed they were too busy dodging the Endopath's attacks to do anything. For the most part, the Endopath had tried as many approaches it could conceive off of the top of it's head and yet, the girls were a step ahead of it and dodged quickly. It was tiring the Endopath out mentally to try and figure out where the girls would go next and continued to throw punches in their direction.

Lulu was spectating the battle from inside the bag and the longer she watched, the more she felt like something wasn't quite right with the girls today. They had just enough time to deliver an attack to the Endopath, yet they hadn't even thrown a single punch at all. The fight was getting hard to watch as no party had been dealt with any damage as of yet and it seemed the Endopath was growing severely impatient with the Cures. As was Lulu.

"Just what are they plotting?" Lulu wondered aloud quietly as she narrowed her eyes on the Cures. Just then, Cure Joy jumped up high and held her hands out as if she was finally ready to attack.

Lulu was about to exhale a sigh of relief, but then she noticed what kinda of stance Joy was taking on and continued to eye her curiously,

"She's not actually going to use a magic-based attack already is she?" Lulu asked as she studied Joy, who was now holding her hands out in front of herself.

"Pretty Cure, Vivacious Spark!" She cried out.

The Endopath appeared to still be confused as to what was going on so Joy's attack was able to land. Once the attack made contact with the Endopath and Joy was on the ground again, she looked at the Endopath who had stumbled to it's feet for just a moment with a smug look on her face.

"What do they think they're doing, trying to avoid making any physical attacks?" Lulu whispered incredulously as she watched Delight follow suite.

"Pretty Cure, Effervescent Beam!" Delight cried out as she leapt up above the Endopath with her hands aimed towards it as a tri-beam of white, blue and pink lights emerged out from them. Nervously, Lulu glanced over to Nijoux's direction to see whether or not she had caught on to what the Cures were doing.

With a yawn and her eyes fixated on the two Cures Nijoux spoke up and said to the Endopath," This battle is going nowhere, so end it now."

Lulu directed her gaze back to the Cures as the Endopath stomped hard, so hard that the Cures lost their balance momentarily.

"You two gotta stop playing around and fight this thing head on!" Lulu called out from inside Rumi's bag, her hands, or paws, cupped around her mouth.

Delight turned her attention towards Joy, though by the time she did this Joy had already started charging towards the Endopath. Joy balled one of her hands into a fist and rested the other hand on top of it as she ran. She had to admit, the battle was taking longer than expected but that was only because the girls were experiencing some difficulties in using the same magic-based attack again. It was like they were recharging, but they hadn't done any kind of attack aside from using their powers.

"I thought it was safe to assume that if we didn't try and fight back physically, we would've been able to store away more energy for the magic-based attacks, but I guess that really isn't how it works." Joy thought to herself as she clenched her teeth," And now we've got no other choice but to do this old fashioned way."

But just before Joy was going to leap up to fight against the Endopath, the music notes in the Endopath's pages were flying out from the book and once they got close enough to Joy, they bursted and produced a loud, off-key sound that sounded like it came from a piano.

Joy cringed at the sound as she impulsively clasped her hands over her ears and shut her eyes tight for a few moments.

"That sound could make my ears bleed..." Joy lamented as she cautiously pulled her hands away from her ears. She shook her head and leapt up, deciding that now was her best time to attack and motioned Delight to follow her lead.

The fight picked up and the girls were now fighting as normal, though Lulu still seemed a tad skeptic after their display from earlier. The Cures delivered as many punches and kicks they could preform in the small window of time before the Endopath would blast of swarm of exploding notes towards them again.

"Try and stay as far away from the notes as possible, they're a whole lot louder when they're up in your face." Joy advised Delight as the two of them continued to attack, with Delight nodding in response before getting hit with a note. The note didn't yet explode when it came in contact with her and instead flung her to the other side of the room. Just before it exploded, Delight pressed her hands over her ears before the note exploded.

She turned her head away from the note with her eyes closed and after it exploded, she reopened her eyes and something near to the piano's leg caught her eye.

As Joy continued to fight, she made sure to keep her distance from as many notes as she could, but soon enough, that was too was becoming a challenge as the Endopath just continued to release more from the book. The abundance of the notes were overwhelming but at least it kept the Endopath somewhat occupied for her to attack. Joy tried sneaking up from behind the Endopath to land a kick in the center of it's back but suddenly, after realizing Joy was out of sight, the Endopath spun around and swatted her away with it's large hands and sent her flying towards a dresser in the corner of the room.

Joy winced as she felt the pain surge through her body but then, she saw Delight holding something and mouthing the word 'catch'. She couldn't exactly tell what it was with how dimly lit the room was but once she caught it, her eyes widened with surprise.

Delight sprang up from where she was crouching and was racing towards the Endopath at full speed. Just like Joy, she was faced with a hoard of notes appearing from the book and it appeared that any form of contact with them would inevitably cause them to burst. Before, this was quite the hindrance but Delight paid no heed to the noise now as pushed some of the notes of of her way and even leapt on quite a few of them.

"How is she able to handle all the sounds coming from the notes?" Nijoux questioned under her breath, before her eyes widened in realization," Don't tell me-!"

Joy then came rushing to Delight's side and smacked a wave of notes out of existence, appearing to be unfazed by their sounds as well.

"Earplugs, who would've thought there would be earplugs in the music room?" Joy asked, sounding more grateful rather than skeptic.

The Endopath seemed unaware of how the Cures were now able to obliterate the notes without being affected by the sounds and didn't notice the girls charging straight towards it. After one last wave of notes, it finally saw the pair emerging from behind them and they both punched it hard, knocking the Endopath to it's feet.

The punch had conveniently hit the black star on the top of the page and produced a crack in it, causing a dark wave of energy to disperse out of it.

"And here comes the fun part." Joy declared as she conjured up her scepter and pointed it in front of the Endopath.

"Pretty Cure, Brilliant Elation!" She yelled, causing the area around her to turn pale yellow. The Endopath was cleansed and it had turned back into a normal music book with another white charm placed on top of it.

Nijoux however seemed quite enraged as she stared at the Pretty Cures and said," Don't think this will be the last time you'll see me! Next time, you girls are going to be toast, ripped to shreds and nothing is going to stop me from ending you two!"

As she disappeared, Joy and Delight looked at the spot where Nijoux had been, wearing opposite expressions while doing so.

"Well someone's angry." Joy observed flatly as she took the white charm from off the music book.

"Good job today girls." Lulu appraised as she transformed into Ms. Hightower during mid-sentence, causing the two Cures to eye her in curiosity.

"Why the sudden transformation?" Delight asked as Ms. Hightower walked up to the two of them.

"No reason really, I just have one question." Ms. Hightower began as she now stood behind the two of them.

Suddenly, she pulled on both of their ears, surprising them greatly as she asked," Just why did two not put any effort into this fight until the second half of it?"

Joy pulled herself free from Ms. Hightower's grip, rubbing her ear tenderly as she sputtered out," It's because we thought our magic would've been enough to defeat it."

"So that's the reason as to why you two were hesitant to fight today?" Ms. Hightower asked briskly as she raised an eyebrow at Joy.

Joy dropped her gaze to her feet and weakly added," Not just that but...you see, well..."

Delight then lifted up her right arm to show the two of them the back of it, revealing that there had been a large gash that was quite hard to look at for both Joy and Ms. Hightower.

"We aren't experts at fighting, our bodies can't constantly keep up with all these attacks." Delight declared neutrally, with Joy nodding in return as they awaited to hear Ms. Hightower's input. Though it appeared she clearly wasn't expecting this. She took a deep breath and adverted her gaze from Delight's wound and looked at the Cures with a stern look in her eyes.

"So, now that you know your magic alone can't defeat them and you'll still have to fight these monsters head on, what do you believe should be your next move?" Ms. Hightower questioned.

Joy looked down to her hand that had been rather scraped today and answered," One part of me wants to just back out while I can but I know that if I were to do that, a scraped hand and a skinned knee would be the least of my worries soon enough. So... I guess we'll just have to train and get strong enough to not worry about getting beat up as badly as we've been getting."

"So you mean like, going to the gym and stuff?" Delight asked.

Joy nodded and responded," We can't let these bruises get to us anymore. If we keep on worrying over small stuff like this then I guess we wouldn't stand much of a chance against Castra or whoever is in charge of Melancholy. So, starting tomorrow, we're going to focussing on becoming as strong as we can!"


	7. Training with Saori!

It was a Friday afternoon and Gogo could be seeing running as fast as she possibly could towards her brothers' school, panting madly as she did. The way towards the school had little to no people crowding around the elementary school and that was likely because school had ended about an hour ago for them. It reminded Gogo of when she was younger and would have to wait for her parents to come pick her and her older sister up when class long over. The sky was tinted a faint orange as the sun started to set and a few clouds were starting to appear. Gogo was more than ready to catch her breath, but she was already very late now since she had club today.

When she got to the school doors, she leaned against the door for a few seconds before making a mad dash into the school. When she got to the classroom where they boys were supposed to be, she found her three brothers playing with action figures that belonged to the classroom and the student-teacher who'd usually wait behind with them when Gogo's parents couldn't pick them up on time.

"Gogo, you look beat." The student-teacher remarked as she removed her gaze from the newspaper she was reading. The student-teacher was a tall girl with ivory skin who appeared to be in her early twenties. Her light caramel brown hairs cascaded to her shoulders and she wore a pale pink button shirt with a grey pencil skirt.

"I really didn't want to keep you waiting." Gogo said in between pants as she rested her head against the doorway," Alright, tell Ms. Nishino good night and wish her luck on her shift at the cafe today."

The trio complied without hesitation, saying goodbye in a polite manner that Gogo found a little strange since they seldom did what she said immediately. Was it because they weren't at home? No, it must've been because they didn't want to be seen as little brats to the pretty Ms. Nishino.

"Is that why you rushed here?" Hinari asked as she collected her things," I actually took the day off, sorry I didn't tell you."

Gogo just shook her head and replied with," You know what? It's alright. I could always use the extra exercise."

"You're all sweaty though." Reo pointed out as the four of them walked towards the doorway, causing Gogo to stick her tongue out at him. The five of them walked out together as soon as Hinari collected her things. As they exited the school, Gogo and Hinari began to talk with each other about casual topics like the weather and school.

"Any plans for the weekend Gogo?" Hinari asked as they left the school building.

"Um, head to the gym." Gogo answered bashfully, knowing what kind of response she was going to receive from the group.

"What?!" Her trio of brothers guffawed as Gogo instantly dropped her gaze to her feet in a somewhat timid fashion.

"But you're in track club and you just ran all the way here, I think that's plenty of exercise already." Hinari pointed out thoughtfully, though Gogo was just as quick to defend herself.

"On average, a kid my age needs an hour of exercise everyday." Gogo countered," Not to mention, this is more for me get stronger."

"Oh I see, well, try not to pull any muscles." Hinari pleaded just before the two groups were about to split paths," Have a good weekend!"

The four of them waved goodbye to Hinari and during their walk back home the three boys chatted about the new video game they just got while Gogo was thinking about her plans of going to the gym tomorrow.

While she was well-aware that heading off to the gym was much needed for both her and Rumi, her mind still quareled against the thought, listening maybe a dozen reasons as to why this wouldn't go well. There might be too many people, she'll see someone she knew from school and have to string together a reason aside that excluded the whole Pretty Cure thing as to why she was there, or worse, she'll wake up late and miss going to the gym with Rumi altogether.

Gogo stretched her arms out, enjoying the thought of not going to the gym after a long day at the track, maybe Hinari did have a good point. But then, her mind then went back to when Rumi showed off the gash she received during one of the Pretty Cure fights, alarming her greatly as her eyes widened. Gogo shook her head as if it trying to rid of herself of the image that seemed to be burned into her brain.

 _"I can't just pick and choose what I want to do in regards to this whole Pretty Cure thing now, it's a commitment not some kind of hobby_." Gogo reminded herself, a near anxious expression appearing on her face as her mind once again was projecting that image of Rumi's giant, unsightly gash.

When the four of them came home, they initially assumed they were home alone but then, they all saw a pair of shoes, a beige pair of flats to be exact, sitting on the shoe rack.

"Saori's home!" The three boys exclaimed just before they were about to rush upstairs, though Gogo stood in front of the stairway to prevent them from doing so.

Gogo shook her head as she said," You're not going to be bothering her when she just got home for the weekend, she's probably sleeping or something so just give her an hour and then you can talk with her as much as you want."

The three boys seemed mildly upset by Gogo's demand but agreed as they went to play their video game. Gogo went up to her room, wondering if she had been a little too harsh when she said that.

"I'm only looking out for Saori. These last few weeks she's been caught sleeping on the couch or in her room the minute she gets home. I guess university's really been draining for her lately." Gogo thought to herself as she headed up to her room.

When Gogo swung open the door, she seemed greatly unimpressed, eyes narrowed onto none other than her sister fast asleep on her bed with her face down onto Gogo's pillow. A few moments later, Saori woke up, her glasses tangled into her burgundy hair having been pushed onto her forehead and stretched before acknowledging Gogo's presence. After she finished stretching she rubbed her eyes and smeared whatever makeup had been around her eyes and looked around the room, trying to remember why she was in here.

"Have you seen my jean jacket? I couldn't find it in my dorm this week so I was wondering if you borrowed it and I kinda started looking around when I couldn't find it in my room..." Saori said sheepishly with a yawn before she adjusted her glasses back on her face.

Gogo walked over to her computer chair, not even willing to comment on how Saori managed to doze off in Gogo's room just by looking for her jacket and tossed a coat that had been laying there towards Saori.

"Thanks." Saori said as she scratched her head and stood up, just about to leave before she looked at the calendar on Gogo's door and checked out her plans for the weekend," You're going to the gym? Can I come?"

"I don't know, aren't you even the slightest bit tired after this week? Plus, I thought you'd much rather to anything that had to do with the gym considering-"

"-But I haven't gone to the gym in a few days because of all my homework so my body is begging for the exercise." Saori claimed," Plus, I could help you work out! Whatever you want to gain from your gym session, I can help tailor just the right exercise for you!"

"She's got a good point, but how I do tell her I'm trying to get stronger to fight better as a magical girl?" Gogo thought to herself," Ok, fine, but...don't hold back and try and make this exercise easy for me. I'm trying to achieve a certain something in possibly short amount of time."

"So who's the lucky one?" Saori jeered as Gogo turned beet red.

"It's not like that! I'm trying to...to...improve my gym mark! It's dropped and I wanna build up my endurance too." Gogo improvised, with Saori nodding in understanding.

"So, are you going by yourself?" Saori asked just before she was about to leave the room.

"No, one of my classmates will be there." Gogo answered, worried of what Saori's reaction might've and hoping it wasn't going to be over-the-top.

Saori did appeared to be quite surprised, thrilled even, that Gogo was going to do something with a friend, let alone at the gym. It almost made her want to congratulate Gogo but she didn't in favour of suggesting something else to her.

"If you really want, you could invite some other classmates. I find going to the gym more fun when I'm going with a small group." Saori stated," Me and my group buy smoothies together after the gym."

Gogo nodded and Saori left the room and went into her own bedroom.

Her bedroom was of course a gigantic mess after she had started looking for her jacket but she didn't seemed to mind. As long as she could stow away all the other clothes under her bed or something she'd be good. She then laid on her bed and started looking through her phone and thought about how Gogo mentioned her classmate coming with her tomorrow.

"She's seems a bit different today." Saori commented aloud with her eyes glued to her phone," Maybe it's because of that classmate."

The next day, Gogo was standing outside of the gym, clad in the gym clothes she opted for instead of her school gym uniform. She wore a pale orange form-fitting t shirt with a baggy pair of navy shorts that reached her knees. She always found the shorts she wore for school to be a little, short so getting a chance to work out in her own clothes crossed off one of the potential issues that could've arose had she worn her uniform.

Gogo was on lookout for Rumi and a few other girls she managed to convince to come with her to the gym today. Though, the 'journey' to get them here was quite a treacherous one as Gogo looked back on it.

Last night, she messaged the only three people she could name off the top of her head to come with her and of course, each invite took maybe about twenty minutes or so for Gogo to send due to her questioning whether this was a good idea. Each sent message was the result of her finger slipping against the screen and lucky for her, the three she messaged did respond back quickly, expressing interest and declaring they'd come with.

"So, aside from Rumi, I ended up inviting Yukina, Masumi and Hanami, who said she'd bring Michi and Chitose." Gogo reminded herself as she kept an eye out for the girls," Strangely enough, Yukina and Hanami seemed over-joyed at the thought of the gym, I think."

The first to appear was Yukina, then Hanami along with Michi and Masumi. The girls arrived in their normal street clothes with gym bags slung over their shoulders.

"So, is there anyone left?" Masumi asked, somewhat surprised that Gogo was able to bring this many people together.

"Um, just one." Gogo responded, her eyes on a car that had just pulled up. The car door opened and Rumi came out from the car, wearing capri length yoga pants and a pale pink tank top. Her hair was tied into a very small ponytail and she wore a pair of navy blue high-top shoes. Even today, she decided to wear makeup, but kept it as a bare minimum with her lips painted a peach colour and her eye shadow a pale brown.

Gogo didn't appear to be all that shocked that Rumi wore makeup to the gym but she was quite surprised to see Hanami, Chitose and Masumi's reaction to Rumi's arrival.

"So pretty~" Hanami swooned as Rumi took off her sunglasses.

Masumi and Chitose scrutinized Rumi, appearing to be almost envious of Rumi and her cute outfit as they stared down to their clothes.

 _"I just brought my stupid school uniform!"_ The two of them to themselves.

"Text me when you're done." The boy in the driver's seat said tonelessly. He appeared maybe a year or two old than Rumi. He also did resemble her greatly with his ink black hair and pale skin though he was bespectacled and had grey eyes instead of green.

"Ok, see you later!" Rumi said as she closed the car door. The boy drove off and Gogo stepped in front of Rumi as if to introduce her to the group.

"This is Takai Rumi, she's a third year." Gogo said as Rumi waved to the girls. Rumi smiled to the girls confidently, though she was quite the fretful mess on the inside right now. There were a lot of Gogo's acquaintances here and it seemed they all knew each other, so it left her wondering if they would include her or not. But, even if they didn't like, she told herself it was fine. She didn't need their approval to just work out.

"Do you really go to Nakagawa?" Chitose questioned, in marvel of Rumi appearance. Chitose, Hanami and Masumi were treating Rumi as if she was a celebrity rather than an acquaintance, much to her surprise.

"Was that your boyfriend?" Hanami asked.

"Are you seriously friends with Mitsugi?" Masumi interrogated, receiving a glare from Gogo.

"Yeah I am and that was just my brother Kei." Rumi said sheepishly before Yukina spoke up.

"Since everyone is here, shall we head in?" Yukina suggested, with the rest of the group nodding in response.

The gym was indeed full of people, but it wasn't as crowded as Gogo originally imagined. Luckily, the gym was quite spacious as well, with treadmills and bikes on one end of the gym and weights on the other. The girls also noticed that there was a stairway leading to the lower level of the gym too.

"There's even a pool here too!" Chitose exclaimed as she dashed up towards a sign next to the stairway.

"Sounds nice, but I don't think any of us even brought our swim suits." Yukina pointed out sheepishly, before Chitose unbuttoned two buttons on her shirt.

"Or so you thought!" Chitose retorted as she revealed to the group she was wearing her swimsuit underneath with Yukina and Rumi looking at her in bewilderment while the rest of the group gawked at her incredulously before she bolted down the stairwell.

After watch Chitose make her exit, the rest of the group looked towards Gogo, who didn't seem to catch on as to why.

Finally Gogo caught on and said," You guys can just do whatever you want here, or work out with me I guess..." as Saori walked over to the girls, clad in her gym clothes.

"Uh by the way, my sister Saori will be here today to help us. She's in college studying to be a personal trainer, or something like that..." Gogo introduced shakily as she held her hands in Saori's direction.

The group offered Saori a mass of friendly expressions and Saori smiled back to them. The group then began to decide on what to do at the gym finally, with the group splitting up as it appeared they all had certain things they were more willing to do then others. Three groups had emerged from the large groups that were consisted of Hanami and Michi working out on the treadmills, Masumi and Yukina using the pull down machines and Gogo and Rumi just lifting weights for the moment. Saori just worked out on her own for now while keeping an eye on the rest of the group, making sure nobody was doing anything unsafe.

As the girls continued their workout, Gogo noticed more and more people flooding into the gym, and she couldn't help but take note of the fact that some people were eyeing her suspiciously as they walked past. She narrowed her eyes at them, well aware of why they met her with looks like those.

 _"They think a noodle like me is out of place here in a gym full of meatheads..."_ Gogo thought to herself as she lifted the eight-pound weight in her hand thoughtlessly," _Wait, I can't let their staring get to me! I'm not here for their judgment. Who knows, I may even be saving their lives one day!"_

Just then, as Gogo got all fired up by her thoughts, she started to lifted the weights very quickly, worrying Rumi.

"Gogo, you're gonna hurt yourself like that." Rumi warned before Gogo realized that she was lifting quicker than before. Gogo reddened a bit and resumed her weight lifting at normal speed. She then took a moment to look around the room to see what the rest of her classmates were doing. They were still working out and they seemed to be enjoying themselves. Still, the fact that most of her classmates came today really did surprise Gogo as she originally intended to have just herself, Rumi and Ms. Hightower here. Gogo was also quite surprised by the fact that Saori really had been right about how bringing friends to the gym made things feel less intimidating.

"Say, wasn't Ms. Hightower supposed to come with us too?" Gogo reminded Rumi as she continued to lift the weights, though it seemed Rumi wasn't listening to her with her eyes fixated on the glass doors to the buildings.

Having not received a response from Rumi, Gogo looked over to her where her teammate's focus was presently and her eyes widened at the sight.

Sitting right in front of the glass doors was Ms. Hightower in her fairy form, just waiting to be seen by the girls. Luckily for her, it appeared no one else in the gym had taken notice of her yet as most were too busy working out anyways. Gogo shook her head and sighed as she stood up and looked both ways, making sure no one was looking at her and motioned Rumi to follow her out of the gym.

When the two of them exited the gym, Gogo knelt to Lulu seeming quite unimpressed as Lulu waved a friendly wave to her.

" "Morning ladies!" Lulu greeted happily, with Gogo continuing to glare at her.

"Why are you in that form?" Gogo asked in displeasure with her eyes narrowed at Lulu.

Lulu didn't even seemed the slightest bit offended nor phased by Gogo's question and simply answered with," I _was_ going to help train with you in my other form but, I see you brought others from school today and didn't want to have you construct some tall tale for them that would only risk getting your cover blown. It'd be easier saying you found a plush bunny on the street rather than saying you invited your teacher just because, wouldn't you agree? Not to mention, it is easier for me like this if I supervise you girls in this form."

"Why is that?" Rumi questioned.

"On weekends I usually take this form as constantly taking on my other form can get tiring. Think of it like, wearing contacts for me being that form. It's practical and helps me in it's own way, but prolonged hours can either drain me of my energy faster or make me revert into this form unexpectedly. Normally, I don't go longer than twelve hours in this form." Lulu explained.

"I see, well it's shame since you won't be able to exercise like that." Rumi pointed out as she took Lulu into her arms as the two of them stood up.

 _"Was that her plan all along?"_ Gogo thought as they walked back into the gym.

Gogo and Rumi resumed their workout and this time, they switched to the treadmills while Hanami and Michi went to the pull down machines. Gogo took out her aiPod and put in her headphones, knowing that trying to engage in conversation with Rumi on these machines would get quite exhausting soon enough. As the two worked on the treadmills, Gogo stared at Saori who had began designing a workout for two women who appear to be middle-aged. Saori seemed to be enjoying herself as she instructed the two women on what stretches would've been best for them. Gogo also took note of how attentive the women seemed and it appeared to be either because they were serious about getting in shape or they really were drawn in by what Saori had to say.

 _"Maybe Saori should get a job here after college, she'd be a really good fit here."_ Gogo thought as she continued to jog on the machine," _Soon, I'll have to figure out what to do with myself too..."_

Saori then walked up to Gogo and gestured her to take off her earphones. Gogo did as told and Saori said to her,

"It's almost lunch time, how about you get your friends something to eat?" Saori said as she held out a twenty dollar bill in front of her. Gogo nodded and turned off the treadmill, looking over her shoulder to see if Rumi was interested in coming with her.

"Coming?" Gogo asked, before she started to wonder if that sounded too casual for Rumi. Rumi nodded as she turned off her treadmill and followed Gogo to get their bags before they left the gym.

As they started walking to the convenience store down the road, Gogo started to freeze up again as she found herself stuck with just Rumi at her side. Gogo had a feeling that Rumi may have gotten the impression that she didn't like her so fretfully, she tried to start a conversation.

"The gym's really packed today huh?" Gogo stated as she stretched out her arms," I'd never expect so many people there today!"

Rumi smiled and responded politely with," Yeah, me too." as they continued to walk in yet more silence.

Rumi seemed to enjoy just looking at the scenery around though there wasn't actually much to see here except a strip of stores, so maybe Rumi wasn't really enjoying herself but rather, trying to not initiate any form of conversation right now. However, Gogo didn't seem ready to throw in the towel just yet.

 _"Don't let that discourage you, if you really want to be her friend, than you really have to try harder!"_ Gogo reminded herself as she stared at Rumi who's gaze had been set on a mural," So, how's that bruise of your's doing?"

"Oh, well..." Rumi began as she lifted up her arm and showed Gogo the spot where the bruise from a few days ago was," It's cleared up quite a bit, but it's mostly scabbing off now. You haven't had any bad gashes too right?"

"Me? Uh, nothing too major. It's just been sore muscle here to scraped knee and so forth. Nothing like what you had. That looked...well it was hard to look at to be honest." Gogo confessed sheepishly, with Rumi laughing a little in response.

"Yeah, I agree with you but to be honest...I bruise pretty easily, so I guess you could say I was just try to help prove your claim." Rumi explained as her gaze dropped to her feet for a split second before she offered Gogo a somewhat forced smile," Hey, do you wanna get the girls smoothies?"

"Maybe, why do you ask?" Gogo interrogated as the two of them stopped walking for a moment.

"Well, there is a smoothie place here." Rumi informed her as she pointed to the smoothie parlour right in front of them. Gogo seemed a bit surprised that she didn't noticed it until Rumi literally pointed it out to her.

"It does sound like a good idea, but I don't know what flavours they're going to want so it might just be a waste." Gogo pointed out, though the idea of getting a smoothie did seem to entice her greatly, to the point of her stomach rumbling all of a sudden. Gogo crimsoned and glowered to her stomach while Rumi giggled.

"We could just get smoothies for ourselves and hide the evidence when we get back." Rumi suggested, with Gogo narrowing her eyes at her in response.

"Where are we suppose to hide the- Oh, never mind I got it." Gogo said as she walked up to the smoothie parlour and swung the doors open, Rumi following after her.

Once they got their smoothies the two of them sat outside at the table in front of the parlour, in a silence that Gogo considered comfortable since they were preoccupied with drinking their smoothies right now. Gogo sighed a breath of relief after one large sip, this time of quiet gave her a chance to think of something, anything to say to Rumi so that she wouldn't have to let another awkward silence form between the two of them.

 _"So far, I got plans for summer, a potential teammate for our team and maybe even just telling her about Onyx. If I can just think of some kind of seg way for each topic I should be-"_

"You know Gogo, I'm very surprised that you brought so many girls from school to our gym meet today." Rumi voiced, catching Gogo off-guard as she hastily gulped down yet another huge sip.

"Yeah, me too. I didn't even think I could convince one person to come, let alone a whole group." Gogo sputtered before considering what else Rumi could've been implying," Was it too many people? I didn't really think it'd be an issue, Saori just said that it'd be easier with a group and so I went with what she said and-"

"It's ok! I don't mind at all." Rumi reassured as she waved a hand of dismissal," If anything, it makes me a bit jealous of you."

Rumi started looking down at her smoothie, hoping her words didn't sound as bitter as she intended them to be, though Gogo appeared to be dumb-founded by the thought.

"Jealous of me? Why?" Gogo asked in pure confusion.

"A lot of people were open to the idea of hanging out with you, as if you were a magnetic force pulling them in. I wish I was like that. I've always kept to myself, I just repel others. I'm sure if anyone were to give me the time of day, I'd just make a bad impression of myself. I always thought that if I actually did make an effort, I could make friends with anyone I wanted to but, I wonder if those words ring true in reality." Rumi thought aloud absently.

 _"I've been wondering why despite having been around the others less than Rumi, I still have a harder time speaking with her. I get it now, it's because she's in her own league. Her thoughts are deep, it's like she's drowning in them. And it's goes unnoticed by most."_ Gogo said in her head.

Rumi chuckled as if to dispel the mood between the two of them she created and said," I'm in truth kinda shy if you couldn't tell and conversations aren't really my strong suit. So, I hope I didn't seem like I was uninterested in talking to you, you're actually very interesting Gogo!"

"Um, good to know." Gogo responded blankly before Lulu popped her head out of Rumi's bag.

Lulu seemed oddly tranquil, and unaware of her surroundings as if she had been asleep the entire time as she asked," When did we get here?"

"And she said was going to supervise us!" Gogo thought to herself incredulously as she stared at Lulu, while Rumi looked down at the bunny with sympathy in her eyes.

"I guess it must've been boring to just be watching us, or perhaps you were up late last night." Rumi wondered, with Lulu nodding in response as a result.

"I had a whole stack of papers to grade, and I knew I couldn't just leave them all for today since we had plans." Lulu explained after drawing out a large sigh with her eyes shut.

Gogo watched both Rumi and Lulu for a short period of time, saying absolutely nothing before Rumi stood up to signal that it was time to leave. Gogo hastily got up after her and the pair started to walk to the convenience store. Gogo and Rumi ended up buying granola bars for the group, having no other choice since everything else seemed either too unhealthy or too expensive for them.

Rumi seemed interested in the sour candy cups, but Gogo insisted against it as they went to the cash register. When they got to the register, Gogo thought about the look in Rumi's eye as she stared at the sour candy cup. It wasn't exactly a look of desire she held in her eyes, but rather curiosity, as if she hadn't seen it before.

Once they left the convenience store, Gogo then questioned," Have you ever had a sour candy cup before?"

"Not that I can recall. I never really eat candy all that much." Rumi explained as she tried to think of a time where she did have sour candy, but nothing came up.

"Oh I see, your parents don't allow you to eat sweets or something right?" Gogo asked nonchalantly, trying to veil her surprise in the fact that Rumi hadn't had sour candy before.

"Something like that I guess, but my brother's more into that kind of candy. I'm more of a chocolate person if anything." Rumi answered," I used to be really obsessed with that hazelnut spread, I forget what it's called now, but I couldn't go a meal without it."

 _"Is she talking about...Nutella?"_ Gogo wondered before she started laughing, causing Rumi to look at her in suspicion.

"You don't strike me as someone who would've suffered from the Nutella addiction." Gogo admitted sheepishly, with Rumi laughing with her now.

"Something tells me that Mitsugi also had an addiction to Nutella too~" Lulu stated from inside the bag in a singsong voice.

Irritated, Gogo claimed," It's perfectly normal to have a Nutella phase!"

"Then why were you so surprised to see that Takai had one too?" Lulu pointed out, only making Gogo angrier.

"That's only because-! Hey, are you feeling ok?" Gogo asked all of a sudden as Lulu's expression shifted greatly. She wore an expression of distress once the three of them neared the gym. Gogo and Rumi looked up and found that the gym looked normal, just as they left it, but Lulu's expression was making them wary.

"Is there an Endopath somewhere in the gym?" Rumi questioned as she and Gogo stood at the entrance.

"There's some kind of energy, like a whole group of Endopaths radiating out from here..." Lulu warned, the bad feeling she was getting from the gym only becoming stronger with each passing second.

Inside the gym, everyone had had gone missing and many of the machines had been turned into Endopaths. In the center of it all stood a man who appeared to be in his young adult years and had very pale skin with short powder blue hair. He wore a sleeveless navy blue shirt with white and blue arm-warmers along with slate grey pants. The man stared at the room, appearing to be waiting for someone as he glanced over towards the doors.

"After all this time, my chance to meet the Pretty Cure finally arrives." He mused to himself," But I wonder if they'll be able to put up a fight against this many Endopaths."

 _"I'm telling if we waste anymore time on this brat, Castra won't be happy." Onyx warned her teammates as she paced around in deep thought in a cold dark room. Nijoux and the man sat down on a lounge chair in front of her, the former not seeming motivated after Onyx's little speech._

 _"But it's not like she's ever happy. She's always fussy and keeps saying we aren't trying hard enough." Nijoux lamented as she examined her nails," We do what she says and every time, no matter what, she starts lecturing us on how we're a total disgrace to her. Speaking of attacks, who's going today?"_

 _Onyx replied without a trace of uncertainty voice saying," It's going to be me."_

 _Nijoux narrowed her eyes at Onyx and pointed out to her in a somewhat agitated tone," You know, Storm hasn't gone yet."_

 _"And what's stopping him? I only volunteered because he hadn't spoken up." Onyx said as she set her gaze on Storm," Perhaps he's afraid of meeting the Pretty Cure."_

 _Storm's gaze shifted to the side as he said," They can't be that frightening if you've yet to defeat them, despite already encountering only one of them a whole two times. I've heard they've multiplied in your 'absence'. So maybe I should go today and finish what you could call 'your job'."_

 _Onyx seemed quite upset, but she didn't said anything and turned on her heel in an instant as she left the room._

 _Nijoux smiled a near gallant smile while turning her body towards Storm as Onyx came out of eyesight saying," Now you've done it. But it's ok dear. Once those Pretty Cure encounter us together, they won't have any of choice but to surrender."_

 _Storm smiled bashfully and said to Nijoux," I was actually considering going by myself today though, since you've already gone twice now. But don't worry, I'll be fine in my own."_

 _Nijoux was genuinely surprised and only said," Alright then, good luck."_

"Now then let's see what these Pretty Cure are like..." Storm said as the door finally bursted open, revealing Gogo and Rumi in the doorway.

"Ah, a new guy." Gogo commented in surprise," Anyways, you don't have the right to do things like this to innocent people!"

"Draining them of their happiness for your own selfish reasons is unforgivable!" Rumi shouted before the two them held their lockets up high.

"Pretty Cure, Turn that frown upside down!" The two of them cried out.

"A warm ray of sunshine to brighten up your day, Cure Joy!" Joy announced.

"A soothing sensation to bring you at peace, Cure Delight!" Delight announced.

Storm smirked and said in a quiet voice," You don't honestly think you two stand a chance against an army of Endopaths this big, do you?"

Joy and Delight looked around themselves, not realizing just how many Endopaths were surrounding them until now. Their backs were against each other as they stared down their opponents. Treadmills, weights, pull down machines, near every machine in the gym had been transformed into an Endopath in a short amount of time. The feat was impressive but of course, it still seemed intimidating, and thinking about how this guy might've even made Endopaths from their friends made Joy's heart feel ready to sink.

"Come on, this was what we were training for all day wasn't it?" Delight called out as she leapt up high in front of a group of Endopaths," Pretty Cure,Effervescent Beam!"

Her attack was enough to blind the group of Endopaths momentarily and Delight did a backwards flip, landing on one of the few unaffected treadmills in the gym.

"Guess it's my turn then," Joy declared as she darted up to the other group of Endopaths and jumped up high," Pretty Cure, Vivacious spark!"

One half of the group she was aiming for dodged, much to her surprise, and the other half shielded themselves from her attack. The group of Endopaths that dodged charged towards her in an instant while Joy was still in midair.

"That can't be..." Joy griped as she gritted her teeth, trying to figure out what her next move should be.

Storm watched the battle, not the slightest bit impressed by the fight the girls were putting up as he kept quiet.

 _"So these were the girls that the brat and kitten couldn't defeat, after going against twice."_ Storm thought to himself, eyebrows raised as he watched Delight get throw into a window while Joy was in the hands of an Endopath," _Pathetic_."

Joy writhed around in the grasp of the Endopath, kicking her legs around as much as possible while she tried to push herself out from the Endopath's grip with her arms. Her attempts felt futile and she was clearly lack in upper body strength, her arms wobbling about as she tried to push herself free. Joy looked over to Delight, and felt useless as she watched the white-clad Cure dust herself off and pay no mind to a scrape that appeared on her knee.

"Is this all happening because we're just using our magic again?" Joy questioned quietly as she watched Delight plunge back into battle. Joy shook her head and decided enough was enough. No more relying on magic for real, now was the time to really fight back.

"Let me go right now!" Joy shouted as she banged her fists repeatedly on the Endopath's hand. The Endopath actually did let go of her after a few moments and drew it's hurt hand back instantly. Joy was astonished to see that just a few punches were enough to make it recoil and as she landed back on her feet, she got an idea.

"Maybe this won't be as hard as we thought..." Joy said to herself quietly.

Joy sprinted over towards one the Endopaths standing in front of a larger group, as if it was leading them and Joy slid down, grabbed a hold of it's leg and knocked it off it's feet. The fall of that lead Endopath caused the rest of the team to fall as well and as Joy stood up, she brushed her hands and looked down at the group in bewilderment.

"They're just like bowling pins..." Joy remarked before swiftly turning her head towards Delight to inform her," Delight, they're weaker when separated!"

Delight nodded having got the message and tested out Joy's logic by delivering a kick to the nearest Endopath's face and sent it to the other side of the gym. Delight was just as surprised as Joy and even a bit excited now knowing that this gave them a major advantage if they acted quickly.

Joy and Delight kept delivering punches towards as many Endopaths as they could and each time one got was knocked down, another came in it's place to impose a fight. The Cures didn't entirely mind though since these one-on-one fights were literally lasting for only seconds and it appeared their numbers were dropping faster than their stamina was.

Just then, one of the last standing Endopaths grabbed a hold of Delight's leg and dangled her in front of itself, making it harder for Joy to attack.

 _"If I just swing down and grab it by the leg again, there's no guarantee that Delight can escape with that many Endopaths around."_ Joy reminded herself _," Hey, I wonder if that would work."_

Joy made eye contact with Delight and discreetly pointed upwards. Delight looked in the direction where Joy pointed and caught on to the plan that Joy had in mind. Joy started running towards the Endopath that had got a hold of Delight and just before she sled down to grab it's leg, she put one of her hands up in the air and shouted,

"Pretty Cure, Vivacious Spark!"

"What is she trying to do, attack her teammate?" Storm scoffed with his eyes narrowed at Joy.

Joy's attack had bounce off of one of the suspended strip lights in the gym and just before the attack was sent to the rest of the Endopaths, Delight leapt up and grabbed on the strip light beside the one that Joy's attack bounced off of. Joy was able to dodge her own attack in time and the collision from her attack along with the Endopaths falling down like dominoes against each other was enough to tire them out for good. Not only did it tire them out, the reflected attack managed to do it's job and was cracked the black star embedded onto each Endopath.

"Now, Delight!" Joy shouted.

"With pleasure," Delight responded as she leapt down from the strip light," However, with this many Endopaths, maybe it'd be best if we purified them all together."

"Uh, yeah, that's what I meant." Joy chuckled stiffly as the two of them positioned a hand in front of the Endopath army.

"Pretty Cure, Jovial Elation!" The two of them shouted in unison, turning the area around them a pale yellow and white in mid-sentence. An array of yellow, orange, white and blue lights then appeared and erased the black starts completely on each and every one of the Endopaths.

Though they were restored to regular gym equipment, only one glossy white charm was left in the gym.

"No wonder they were so damn weak, I bet they were all formed by just one black star!" Joy lamented as she held the charm up to the light, quite unimpressed with amount of charms received today.

"So would you say that all of the Endopath's strength from today was equal to the one from last time?" Delight questioned.

"Probably." Joy muttered as she and Delight de-transformed, with Lulu hopping towards them.

"Good job today girls, it seems your efforts really did pay off." Lulu praised, though Gogo wasn't buying it.

"These Endopaths were just weaker. " Gogo reminded her," We'll just stronger from here though, I hope."

"So that guy from today...he's new? Are there are more members aside from him and Nijoux?" Rumi questioned as Gogo started walking towards the gym's lower level stairway in search of the people who were in the gym.

"Yeah one more, a stuck-up chick named Onyx. You'll meet her soon enough." Gogo assured just as the two of the went to the pool and found everyone who was at the gym before huddled around Chitose in a circle.

"What happened to her?" Gogo asked as one man started wrapping a bandaged around her ankle.

"She's got a slight sprain, might've been from running...but she's been keeping a tight lip about it for the last ten minutes." The man explained as he shot her a look.

"Well...I may've got a little too excited and made a mad dash towards the pool when I saw it. I also may or may not have just shrugged it off and started swimming..." Chitose confessed sheepishly.

"You probably made it worse." The man deadpanned her.

"So you all came here to her aid?" Rumi said in surprise as she looked around the group.

"We didn't know what to do so we asked everyone at the gym here and told them it was urgent." Hanami explained.

"But I'm fine now, thanks to Mr. Doctor over here!" Chitose reassured cheerfully, while the man bandaging her looked at her in irritation," Plus I had fun today, it'd be cool to do it again, you know, once my leg gets better."

"Yeah, I'd like to as well." Yukina agreed, with Hanami and Masumi nodding with her.

"Well Gogo, looks like you've got yourself a gym group." Saori remarked as she put a firm hand on Gogo's shoulder," So when shall we hang out next?"

Gogo reddened a bit, annoyed that she had been put on the spot like that as she stammered out," Uh, um...soon I guess, whenever you guys would like or whenever we're all available..."

"Sounds good to me!" Saori responded brightly with the group nodding with her.

"G-great..." Gogo replied, an awkward looking, but genuine smile appearing on her face as she looked at the group before her.


	8. Coffee-shop blues

Sunlight poured into the cafe windows, warm and inviting, as Hinari looked beyond the windows and towards the doors. The light was blinding for a few moments and made it somewhat difficult for Hinari to keep an eye out for a certain someone.

 _"These days, I've only been working part-time here, very part-time with only one shift a week maybe two if someone calls in sick on a Sunday. Originally, I was really annoyed that I caved and let myself continue to work here but, ever since he's been coming in, I've been finding myself looking forward to these weekends."_ Hinari thought to herself as she was absently writing an order on a cup. Saturday mornings proved themselves to be quiet, but once the clock struck noon it somehow picked up quickly. But, the person Hinari was keeping an eye out for typically came around earlier than that, nine-fifty to be exact.

 _"Ever since I started working these Saturday shifts, you've been showing up; Ordering the same order everyday in that same toneless, aloof tone. It seems like you aren't interested in being friendly with the baristas here and I don't blame you, some of them are sorta...unfriendly. Sometimes, I'll be lucky enough to take your order, other times I'm not. But if luck is on my side and there's a flood of people in line, I get to ask for your name. You're stingy, only letting me having a single letter, but it's ok. I think you might just be playing hard to get."_

As Hinari was day-dreaming about the guy she admired, the door swung and in came a tall boy with a backpack. Hinari flushed red and pushed the barista closest to the cash register out of the way and took her place. She felt her hands tremble as she felt around for her pen, keeping her gaze locked onto him.

 _"Luck is on my side today!"_ Hinari cheered in her mind, pretending that she hadn't pushed her fellow barista to the side.

"Hi, what can I get for you today?" Hinari questioned cheerily, though she already had his order memorized as she grabbed a small cup.

"I'll have a small cinnamon macciato.." The boy said, not even making eye-contact with her as he searched his bag for his wallet.

"Now to pull out my ace!" Hinari said in her head triumphantly," No foam right?"

"Now he's going to look in surprise, and I'll get to see those pretty grey eyes look at me in shock that I remember his order perfectly!"

"Yeah." The boy said flatly as he handed her a five dollar bill along with some loose change.

Fazed, Hinari took the cash and weakly said," Your order will be ready on the right."

The boy didn't say anything else and Hinari hung her head in defeat.

"My efforts to show I was interested in him...gone unnoticed." Hinari thought as she prepared his order," I should've known better, I'm so bad with romance! If I want to get anywhere with this though, I'll have to contact a professional."

"Kuromi, what do you mean you can't help?!" Hinari wailed into her cell phone a few hours later.

"I'm outta town next week, maybe another time ok?" Kuromi offered before hannging up, with Hinari sighing afterwards.

"This will be just like time in college if I have to see him again without Kuromi there to help me." Hinari moaned as her mind flashed back to a few years ago, where she accidently asked her crush to marry her instead of confess her feelings. That guy got creeped out and didn't ever speak to her again. Hinari reassured herself that he probably wasn't the one if he had been so easily turned off, but then again, how many people have been asked out of nowhere to get married?

"I guess I could either try look up something online to help me out, or I'll just call in sick next week and wait for Kuromi to come back." Hinari sighed to herself.

Next week, Gogo was walking to her brother's school, this time with Rumi coming along as Gogo invited her. She thought it would've been nice to hang out for a bit after school even if it was just to pick up her siblings and Rumi agreed to go.

"I hope it isn't too weird of me to ask you to hang out by walking with me to pick up my siblings." Gogo finally said, the thought being in her head for quite awhile now.

"No, it's fine, it's nice to take a walk around here where you get to see the sun just before it sets." Rumi stated as she looked towards the sky, minutes away from fully tinting orange.

Just as Gogo and Rumi reached the school, they saw the boys standing outside waiting for Gogo. The two girls seemed a bit confused as they would usually wait in the classroom with Hinari so Gogo walked up to them quickly to ask why they were waiting out here.

"Did Hinari have to leave early?" Gogo asked the trio, who collectively shook their heads in return.

"She wasn't looking very good inside the classroom." Ryu said," She was all jittery and kept scrolling through her phone."

"That doesn't really sound like Hinari..." Gogo responded as she lead the group inside the school and into the classroom where he boys usually were.

Inside that classroom sat Hinari at the teacher's desk, her phone beside her and her head on top of her folded arms.

"Um, Hinari?" Gogo asked cautiously, trying to find out whether or not Hinari had passed out.

Hinari then lifted her head from the desk, her hair a bit messy now, but she seemed ok for the most part.

"Hey Gogo...how's it going?" Hinari asked with a near vacant look in her eye. Her tone made her sound tired, exhausted even as if something had been bothering her all day.

"She's a zombie..." Gogo said quietly as she stared at Hinari," Are you feeling alright?"

Hinari kept quiet for a few moments, wondering whether or not it would've been ok for her to tell Gogo about her personal issues. She knew better than to dish out her problems on a high-school girl, but keeping this secret to herself felt like it was doing more harm than good right now.

And so, Hinari confessed," I have a crush on a regular at the cafe."

"Then just ask them out or something." Gogo suggested, sounding mildly uninterested in the topic though she was aiming for encouraging. Hinari's reason for being disheveled today did seem pretty anticlimactic to her.

"But you don't understand!" Hinari blurted out," I've got bad luck when it comes to talking to crushes. I get all tongue-tied and then I say the wrong thing and then I weird them out! And it feels I get worse at confessing each time."

"Oh come on, I don't think your last confession could've been that bad." Gogo stated in a reassuring voice while Hinari rested her head onto her folded arms again.

"I asked my last crush to marry me." Hinari replied, her voice muffled with her head in her folded arms.

Gogo was at a loss of words now, and looked over to Rumi whispering," Any bright ideas?"

Rumi then said to Hinari," You know, I met someone who was having difficulty asking someone out. They told me they suffered from things like clammy palms and headaches when they tried talking to their crush. As you can see, they were insanely nervous. He told me how he would practice in the mirror trying ask out the person he liked for about half an hour for a week and he still felt unsure of himself. But despite all these panicky and anxious feelings he had, he told he would've felt worse even he didn't even try to ask out the girl at all."

Hinari sniffled and looked up to Rumi, evidently curious as she asked," So did he ask her out?"

"Yes he did!" Rumi beamed.

"And what did she say?" Gogo asked hesitantly.

"I- I mean, she said no." Rumi concluded, astonishing just about everyone in the classroom," But once we started talking he said he felt a bit more calm and he was finally able to remind himself that I was just a normal person. After that talk, he said he didn't feel as bad after that."

"So she let him down easy..." Hinari and Gogo both thought to themselves, eyes narrowed at Rumi.

"Well, one thing we take from this tale of Rumi's is that it's worth a try!" Gogo exclaimed, with Rumi nodding in response," You just have to ask yourself, is asking this guy out worth the risk? Do you like him enough to risk getting rejected?"

Hinari then thought to herself, and then she thought about the boy she was crushing on. The more she thought about him, the longer the image of him stayed in her head, the more overwhelmed Hinari was feeling. She started feeling a bit dizzy but then she felt her heart throb and the change in heartbeat outlived the dizziness.

"He's worth the risk." Hinari declared and quickly she added," But, I'm still scared to ask him out. I need moral support when I tell him how I feel."

"Ok, that's understandable," Gogo responded, feeling defeated on the inside as she wanted as little as possible to do with this. Romance wasn't something she was that experienced at and so, Gogo pointed to Rumi.

"She'll probably be great at that!" Gogo claimed, though Hinari didn't seem satisfied.

"Gogo please be my moral support~" Hinari begged with her hands clasped in front of herself," It's not like your the one asking someone ask anyways,"

Gogo sighed, knowing that Hinari had a point as as she said," I guess I'll do it. So we'll all go on Saturday and meet you there ok?"

Hinari nodded attentively as the group exited the classroom while she said," Make sure you're there before nine-fifty!"

During the walk back home, Gogo let the boys walk ahead of her, much more ahead than usual so that they wouldn't be a bother to Rumi. Gogo started thinking about how Hinari asked them to help her for moral support and just the thought itself was stressing her out. Of course, it wasn't because the problems arising in her mind had something to do with Hinari, it was more directed towards letting Hinari down.

"So Gogo, I take it you haven't been on a date before?" Rumi asked playfully, causing Gogo to turn red almost instantaneously. Though, Gogo gave away her answer without even saying a word, Rumi let her speak.

"I've just haven't ever been interested in someone that way..." Gogo admitted sheepishly, " Maybe when I'm older, much older."

Rumi nodded in understanding," That's fair. As nice as being in a relationship seems, I don't feel ready for one right now either."

Maybe it was just her imagination, but Gogo could've swore that Rumi had this flustered, almost embarrassed look on her face for a second as she admitted this. Gogo then realized it was likely that quite a few of Rumi's classmates had to either had a boyfriend or be interested in someone right now. Meanwhile Gogo's classmates were just friendly with other, as far as Gogo knew at least.

They reached Gogo's house soon enough and the group parted ways with Rumi. The boys scrambled to the living room to play their video games while Gogo went up to her room and laid on her bed with her back against the wall. She looked out her bedroom window and stared at the sunset. She zoned out for a few moments, then looked towards Saori's bedroom and remembered how Saori was eating chocolates out of a heart shaped tin while doing homework a long time ago. It was around then when she was with her first boyfriend.

"Saori was in second-year by that time, next year I'll be in second year..." Gogo reminded herself nervously," Does that mean I might even be in a relationship by then? We Mitsugi sisters have shared many first experiences at the same age..."

Then Gogo thought about how that was only Saori's first actual relationship and started to consider the fact that Saori definitely had a few crushes before Kojiro, her first boyfriend. Gogo then thought about Hinari's crush on the mysterious boy and wondered if Rumi may've even had someone she admired.

"Could everyone around me have already had a crush on someone already?" Gogo thought to herself nervously before she shouted," I'm not letting this bother me anymore! I don't have time to worry about my own feelings!"

Having got that out of her system, Gogo stretched and looked straight ahead, a bored look in her eye now. She heard her brothers calling her crazy after shouting like that from downstairs and tried to think of something else to do.

"I'll worry about my friends' feelings instead." Gogo said to herself quietly as she ran a search entitled, "how to get a guy to notice you" on her phone.

On Thursday, Gogo was feeling a bit tired due to staying up a bit later than intended, immersing herself in an article that claimed it would help anyone get the person of their dreams in eight simple steps. After reading the article, Gogo wasn't all that satisfied with it, but that might been because the last twenty or so articles she read before it said the exact same thing.

"It's hard following the advice of a dumb article I found on my phone when no one can prove if it works or not..." Gogo thought to herself as she yawned, looking out the window during the class lesson that was almost over," But those articles mostly said the same thing, so maybe they aren't as useless as they seem."

As class ended and lunch time began, Masumi walked over to Gogo, who stretched her arms out the second she got out of her seat.

"Something on your mind?" Masumi asked, as Gogo looked at her sheepishly.

"I make myself too obvious huh?" Gogo responded with a half-smirk, questioning if she should ask for Masumi's input regarding the topic. By now, Gogo felt a bit more comfortable with Masumi, being on a first-name basis with her now. Though Gogo didn't quite know Masumi as well as Rumi, it was definitely easier to talk to her. Unlike Rumi, Masumi just exuded a more welcoming energy and was much more talkative than Gogo realized.

So, Gogo went out on a limb and carelessly asked," How would you go about asking out someone you barely know?"

The smile that had just been on Masumi's face vanished without a trace and Masumi looked at Gogo wide-eyed and suddenly sputtered out," Do you a crush on someone?!"

Gogo then mirrored Masumi's expression and waved both her hands in dismissal saying," No, no it's not me! I'm asking for my friend!"

 _"Goddamnit, why did she have to be so loud?"_ Gogo thought to herself, extremely annoyed by Masumi's outburst," Better question, why did I ask something so vague like that?"

Masumi calmed down and tried to think of a response for Gogo, offering her," Well, I'd tried bring it up casually. Don't make it sound like you've been wanting to ask them out for a long time, it sounds a bit creepy to some people. At least when you're asking out someone's who practically a stranger. Ask them to go get a coffee or something."

"That's actually some really good advice." Gogo commented in bewilderment, those sites she went on mentioned nothing of keeping it casual or as if the thought just came to the asker," Thanks Masumi, I wouldn't have ever thought of someone like that."

"Glad I could help! I'm hanging with some of my other friends so I'll catch you later!" Masumi said as she walked out of the classroom.

Gogo sat back in her seat as she remembered that today she had some homework she intended to finish during lunch. Just before she started working though, she then thought about Masumi's response for a few moments. Only now Gogo realized that Masumi gave her a response she wasn't exactly expecting from someone like herself. It was thoughtful in it's own little way and it most definitely gave Gogo a bit more insight on the topic, but for it to have come from Masumi...it was surprising to say the least.

Just then, Gogo's eye had been caught by a flash of yellow from beyond the window beside her. She looked down and found Masumi standing in the schoolyard with a small group composed of boys and girls from their grade. They looked like the sporty type to Gogo and she then noticed Masumi was standing suspiciously close to one guy.

 _"Go figure."_ Gogo thought to herself as she grabbed a bottle of chocolate milk from her bag and started drinking from it.

On Saturday, Gogo and Ms. Hightower sat at a table, their faces devoid of any interest in their surroundings as Gogo started to feel sleepy while Ms. Hightower was just zoning out. The cafe was quiet as usual for a Saturday morning and it hadn't had a customer in over fifteen minutes. There was little to no sound except for music playing from someone's headphones, and the tapping against a laptop keyboard on the other end of the cafe.

Gogo was just about ready to admit that she had come here a little too early and now she had to wait around for Hinari's mystery boy. But, it wasn't like she was the one asking someone out in less than an hour. But it sure did feel like that last night when she continued her search for Hinari's sake. Despite being originally reluctant in helping Hinari out, she really wanted to do everything she could for Hinari and so just gave up a lot of her time last night to looking up as many ways as possible to ask out a person. It had been awhile since a friend had been depending on her like, so the last thing Gogo wanted was to let them down. Plus it would've been nice for Hinari to have found happiness with the help of Gogo.

Folding her arms on the table and placing her head atop of them, Gogo looked over to the person who's music could be heard quietly from their headphones. Sure, it was quiet for Gogo and Ms. Hightower but it was probably blaring in their eardrums. Gogo sighed, wondering how someone would be able to listen to music so loudly at this early hour.

"Hey, Mitsugi did you even hear me?" Ms. Hightower asked impatiently as she started to scroll through her phone.

"No, sorry." Gogo answered bluntly as she pressed her face against her arms.

"I asked why am I even here?" Ms. Hightower questioned while Gogo slowly lifted her head from the table.

"Because me and Rumi wanna treat you to coffee?" Gogo said, though even knew she was doing a poor job in veiling her lie and Ms. Hightower clearly wasn't buying it.

"Ok, we heard something about a corrupt coffee brewer that's making the coffee impossible to drink because it's so bitter and we started thinking it might've been an Endopath trapped in the machine." Gogo explained

"While it's a good theory, one part seems off." Ms. Hightower stated," We haven't seen anyone complain about their coffee being too bitter and we've been here for a whole forty-five minutes."

Gogo kept quiet, being unsure of what else it could've possibly been before it came to her," Then, maybe it's not a something ruining the coffee, but a someone."

Just then, Rumi walked over to the table with a pair of drinks in her hands as she said," Two medium London Fogs; one for me and one for Ms. Hightower."

Ms. Hightower seemed much more at ease now with a cup of coffee in hand to sustain for the rest of the morning. Gogo wasn't even surprised that all it took was a cup of coffee to change her teacher's mood. She had seen the same thing happen a bunch of times with her mom, dad and sister Saori on the earliest of mornings.

"Now to be productive." Ms. Hightower said as she whipped out a small lavender laptop from her purse. As she tried turning on the laptop, she realized it had been drained of it's battery and searched for a power outlet around the cafe. She did end up finding one, though it was located far away from the table.

"Looks like I'll have to move from here..." Ms. Hightower observed as she collected her things," If you see something fishy going on at the front, call me over."

Gogo and Rumi nodded just before the two of them looked over to the desk and saw Hinari leaning near to the cash register, possibly day-dreaming right now.

"I can't believe this is happening, if all goes right, I could be in my first relationship after this shift. Oh gosh, I didn't even start to think about what we should after that, when we should hang out, just what days am I free again? Wait, what if we can't make time if we have incompatible schedules? Just calm down, I'm sure if he really wants to get to know me and hang out, he'll try to make time for me. I wonder what he does with the rest of his Saturdays? Surely he has a part-time job of some sorts if he's gotta wake up early and grab a coffee. Could he be working in a restaurant? Somehow I doubt it, he's doesn't strike me as outgoing like a waiter. So then maybe he's a cook, or what if he works in retail? That doesn't seem to fit either. But, for all I know, he could very well be either of those things, I probably don't know him as well as I think. I only see him once a week, and only for less than five minutes. I don't get to see what he faces for the rest of his day. This could easily be the highlight of his day as it could the part he dreads most."

"What if he secretly dislikes coffee and just buys it for the caffeine?" Hinari thought aloud anxiously before the door bursted open.

"Morning guys! Yet another lovely morning here at the dreamiest cafe in town~!" The boy who swung open the door declared with delight. He was of an average height, with short caramel brown hair, a peachy complexion and bright hazel eyes. He dressed in a simple plain white polo shirt and black pants with a yellow backpack with the name "Asahi Saito" written on it slung over his shoulder.

"Saito, you're late!" One of Hinari's fellow baristas called out in agitation

"Aw don't worry about Ms. Rina, it's only five minutes! It's not like we're busy right now anyways." Asahi pointed out to her while Hinari started to star at Asahi with a blank look on her face.

"No, how could I have totally forgot about the rookie working today? Saito may be a nice kid, but he's got a big mouth and if he finds out about him I doomed!" Hinari thought to herself as she remembered last week how Asahi mentioned a rude customer Hinari had to deal having a big mouth just before that customer left the cafe," Maybe I still have a shot at this, if I just play it cool and maybe even pretend Saito's not here, I should be good."

"'Morning Ms. Hinari!" Asahi greeted in an upbeat voice while tying an apron onto himself," Did you have a good week?"

Rumi quickly took notice of Asahi and the fact that he seemed rather, unusual for lack of a better term and whispered to Gogo," What if he's the one poisoning the coffee? Don't you think he seems suspicious?"

"He just seems like an idiot to me." Gogo commented flatly.

"Wow really? I can imagine how stressful your other job must be." Asahi remarked as he re-orgazined a tray of cups near the cash register," I don't know how you do it Ms. Hinari."

"Well, it's rewarding in the long run and the kids are actually all very kind even if they are bit bratty every now and then." Hinari explained as she polished a plate.

Asahi nodded in response and just then, the door was opened by Hinari's crush. Hinari froze up upon just looking at him, her eyes wider than usual and her breathing getting quicker. Gogo and Rumi examined the boy from their seats, Gogo having a feeling that she had seen him somewhere and Rumi just wishing her eyes were playing tricks on her as she got a good look at his face.

Hinari started fidgeting with a cup and looked around for a pen while Asahi looked at her in suspicion. Though, one he saw Hinari's mystery boy, he looked rather happy and waved to him.

"Hey Kei!" Asahi called out," I haven't seen you in a few days."

"K-kei?" Hinari stammered awkwardly as Asahi reached over to a cup to take his order.

"Oh Ms. Hinari," Asahi began, just remembering that she was there," This is my friend from Uni, Kei! We don't have any classes together but we've known each since the first day of school."

"I've been reading way too many English books, how could I have been so stupid to think he was just dropping hints when his name was really Kei?!" Hinari fumed in her mind," Um, pleasure to meet you."

"I'll have a small cinnamon macciato." Kei ordered tonelessly as he reached for his wallet in his bag.

"Ok, Hinari you ring him up and I'll get started on his drink." Asahi declared as he ran off with the cup for Kei's order in hand, with Hinari looking at him desolately.

"My chance...it's gone isn't it?" Hinari said under her breath as she punched in his order on the cash register," Wait, Saito's making him a drink over there, so maybe if I just bring it up casually now...I can still make this work! My chance isn't gone, it's right here in front of me!"

"That Saito kid sure is always chipper, I like people like that." Hinari began, though she really had no idea where she was going with this," We need more people like that in the world."

Kei didn't comment as he waited for his change.

Frantically, Hinari grabbed his change and said," You know, something tells me that you're chipper and happy like him deep down."

This caught Kei's attention and instead of giving her a thank you or something for the compliment, he just wore a snide look on his face that seemed to scream," Oh really?"

"Oh god, I got him right where I want him. I can't screw this up though, remember, be casual, act natural. Just ask to hang out like Gogo told you to," Hinari reminded herself and looked straight into Kei's grey eyes," Want to go out for a coffee?"

Kei narrowed his eyes at her and responded with," No thanks."

Gogo and Rumi, who had been watching the entire scene from their seats, sat with their jaws dropped at Kei's reply.

"Am I the only one feeling a draft here?" Gogo stated as she winced at the sight of Hinari's defeat.

"Kei, why do you have to be so mean?" Rumi said quietly with her brows furrowed.

Hinari was staring down at the cash register now, lost in thought as she tried registering what exactly happened. Ok, so that was most likely a total rejection, but it could've been worse, right? This was always the hard part, trying to pull herself together after a rejection, her ears getting all hot and eyes feeling ready to tear up. But then, Hinari heard a gagging sound from out of nowhere. She turned her head over to Asahi and Kei's direction and saw Kei glowering down at the coffee cup in his hand.

"Asahi, your coffee sucks." Kei stated as he gave Asahi a look of disapproval.

"Kei you're so cold, I'll have you know it was my first time making that drink." Asahi declared, soundly prideful oddly enough," You could at least try and spare my feelings."

"Next time try and spare my taste buds, at least that girl makes a decent cup of coffee." Kei responded as he looked over to Hinari's direction," She even remembers my exact order."

Hinari felt her face get hot for a second and looked over to the boys saying," No foam, he doesn't like the foam and one extra spoonful of -! And sometimes he takes it extra hot, depending on whether or not he's in a rush."

"See?" Kei said to Asahi.

"You could've told me all of that stuff!" Asahi griped while Kei put the cup back on the table, trying to decide whether or not he should pay for a new one or just take the cup Asahi made for him.

"I can make you a new cup if you're not in a hurry." Hinari offered kindly before Kei looked down at his watch.

"Maybe next time, I'm gonna run late at this rate." Kei observed as he picked up the cup and walked out of the cafe.

Hinari nodded attentively as he made his way to the cafe doors as she called out," Next one's on me!"

"What just happened?" Gogo asked quietly once Kei left as the cafe fell quiet again," And, did that guy seem familiar to you?"

"That was my brother." Rumi informed without hesitation as Gogo looked at her in shock.

"And you didn't know he came here?!" Gogo guffawed louder than intended, acquiring the gaze of some of the others in the cafe," Well, at least Hinari wasn't hurt too bad. Maybe this might lead to something good."

"Or maybe it shall bring her to demise." A voice suggested as Storm appeared on a empty table.

"Isn't that the other new guy?" Rina questioned while Storm threw a black star onto a coffee brewer. Before the black star landed on the coffee brewer, it multiplied and one of the stars went straight for Hinari. Hinari collapsed to the ground and Asahi rushed to her side.

Storm then disappeared and reappeared outside with the coffee brewer in hand, throwing it up high as he said," Turn their cheer into absolute fear, Endopath!"

Gogo and Rumi followed him outside, hiding by the side doors of the building as the brought out their lockets.

"Pretty Cure, Turn that frown upside down!" Gogo and Rumi shouted.

"A warm ray of sunshine to brighten up your day, Cure Joy!" Joy introduced.

"A soothing sensation to bring you at peace, Cure Delight!" Delight introduced.

Storm briefly surveyed the area and then said," If the Pretty Cure aren't here then I guess we're free to leave."

"Not so fast!" Joy cried as she and Delight appeared in front of the two of them.

"Manipulating the innocent feelings of a love-struck maiden is lower than low!" Delight shouted as she pointed a finger to the Endopath.

"We won't let you get away with this." Joy declared sternly while Storm rolled his eyes.

"Let's take this battle somewhere else, it's too cramped here on this narrow path." Storm stated as he and the Endopath vanished in an instant.

Joy and Delight looked for the pair vigorously for a few moments until Delight located them on the rooftop of the neighboring building. The two Cures leapt up to the top and dashed towards the Endopath.

The Cures and the Endopath started to fight with each other, but this Endopath wasn't like the ones from before. It had unmatched speed and the Cures soon found themselves becoming unable to catch up, plus there was something about this Endopath that made it seem like it was holding back, as if it had a few of it's own tricks up it's sleeve.

"God, this thing is way too fast!" Joy lamented as she leapt up high in the air. The Endopath jumped up to and tried to grab Joy by her leg but Joy saw it coming and preformed a somersault with a kick driving into the Endopath. When the two of them landed on the ground, the coffee inside the Endopath's pitcher swished around a little and just then, the Endopath had an idea. The Endopath removed it's coffee-filled pitcher from it's position and poured the coffee all over Joy.

Joy was livid and started coughing, being resentful of the slightest smell of it made this dilemma all the more worst for her as she tried drying her arms by flailing them around. Not to mention it was quite sticky.

"Joy are you alright?" Delight said before she sent a punch straight in the Endopath's core.

Joy coughed again, feeling just about ready to gag with her clothes soaked in coffee as she said," I'll be fine. We have other things to worry about anyways."

The Endopath came falling back down and it landed on it's feet, awaiting the Pretty Cures next move. Delight narrowed her eyes at it and zipped towards it, her fingertips glowing a faint blue. Joy noticed the glow from Delight's fingertips and wondered if she was planning to attack, but appeared she instead was just focusing her magic into her hands with no intention of releasing it just yet, granting her much stronger punches than before.

"I don't why I never thought about doing that..." Joy said as watched Delight battle against the Endopath. Delight seemed quite pleased with this surge of power, it appeared to be giving her edge in her fight against the Endopath. Delight had a near ravenous look in her eyes as she continued her fight with the Endopath, realizing she was coming close to matching the speed of the Endopath. Just then, Delight lost balance and tripped, with the Endopath glaring down at her.

The Endopath inched toward her and just before it swooped down to pick her up, Joy shouted out,

"Pretty Cure, Vivacious Spark!"

Joy ran towards the Endopath and running towards it while saying her attack seemed to have made her attack stronger. It was like she was charging it up as she ran to the Endopath. The attack landed directly to the Endopath and collided with the hot water dispensing button on it's control panel. Hot water started pouring into the Endopath's pitcher and just then, the Endopath decided to grab both of the Cures and holding the above the pitcher, now brimming with hot water.

"Let go you big dumb coffee maker!" Joy growled as she rapped her hands against the fist of the Endopath.

"I wonder which would happen first, burning or drowning?" Delight wondered quietly as she tried to think of a way out of the Endopath's grip. The Endopath brought the Cures closer to the pitcher, so close that they could feel the steam surrounding them. Delight then started to look around for the weak point, the black star on the Endopath while Joy continued to try and beat her way out of the Endopath's grasp.

Delight scrutinized the control panel on the Endopath, in hopes that the black star would be there and not on it's back. She read through the list of buttons and nothing seemed like it would've been useful for their situation; All that appeared to be here was different settings for coffee blends. But, Delight saw a button that may not have had a black star on it, but should've been enough to put an end to this Endopath temporarily until they found the black star.

"Joy, I've found a way to restrict the Endopath's movements." Delight said in a low voice, hoping that Storm wouldn't hear her," There's a power button on the control panel."

"How am I supposed to reach that though?" Joy asked as she tried to beat her way out of the Endopath's grip, but at the point it was just hurting her hands.

"You haven't noticed yet?" Delight asked, a chuckle following after her question. Joy looked at her in question but once she noticed how much she was starting to sweat, she caught on.

Joy began pushing down on the Endopath's closed fist with all her might and to her surprise, she slipped out within seconds. Joy stood on top of the Endopath's fist for a moment and then leapt towards the control panel. The Endopath just stood clueless in the meanwhile, unsure of just where Joy had escaped to. The Endopath then realized just where Joy was hiding and swatted around it's control panel, trying to grab Joy.

"Joy that's the button!" Delight shouted as Joy came near to the largest button on the panel. Joy pressed it immediately and shut down the Endopath just before it grabbed her. Joy leapt off of the Endopath and Delight wiggled free from it's grip and stood on it's head after it toppled down.

The Cure clad in white scanned around for the black star and found it in the center of it's back. Delight leapt up and smashed her heel down on the black star jewel, leaving a crack on it for a dark aura to escape from it.

"I'll take it from here." Joy declared as she summoned her candle.

"Pretty Cure, Brilliant Elation!" Joy shouted. Their surroundings dimmed into a pale yellow and the Endopath was purified, getting restored to a normal coffee maker and with another white glossy charm inside the coffee pitcher.

"They're stronger together." Storm noted, the concept reminding him of himself and Nijoux as he vanished.

The Cures detransformed once they left the rooftop, Gogo being pleasantly surprised to find that she was no longer soaked in coffee. The two of them walked back into the cafe, finding it to have been much more crowded than when they left. It was surprising to say the least but the girls didn't question it. Gogo and Rumi found Ms. Hightower at the spot where they left her. Ms. Hightower was still sitting by herself and was the only solo coffee drinker in the cafe it appeared, though she seemed a bit on edge as she rigidly tapped against the keyboard on her laptop with a distressed look on her face.

"I'm assuming everything went ok." Ms. Hightower stated, though it sounded more like a question as she pushed her laptop to the side when the girls approached her.

Gogo nodded in affirmation," Is Hinari still doing ok?"

"See for yourself." Ms. Hightower stated as she returned to her laptop," After you guys left, the annoying kid started talking to that Hinari girl and told her that sometimes Kei's prone to misunderstanding things that sound sorta vague. So when she asked if he wanted to get a coffee, chances are he thought she meant just that."

"He must've thought she was asking him if he wanted another coffee." Rumi said with a sigh as she pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Guess that was my fault then." Gogo commented sheepishly.

Gogo saw Hinari taking orders with a bright smile on her face, despite what had just happened after Kei left. She was clearly still thinking about how Kei noticed how she memorized his order and gladly struck up conversations with all of her customers.

"At least she's in a good mood." Gogo smirked as she placed her hand under her chin," Oh yeah Rumi, I was wanting to ask you something. Have you ever had a crush on somebody?"

Rumi appeared to be surprised at the question, but not as surprised as Gogo was expecting. Then again this was Rumi she was talking to, and Rumi was usually anything but predictable.

"Two years ago, I fell for an upperclassman. He was captain of the basketball team and he was incredibly popular. Everyone at school knew him, they all thought he was coolest guy at school. One day I found him sitting at the bench I always sit at and of course, deciding that I was going to let him take my seat, I sat beside him. I didn't expect him to talk to me at all, but then he did. It was weird, no one ever talked to me and so for him to just casually start up a conversation, I was almost at a loss of words. We started seeing each other often at that bench. He needed a place to seclude himself in and I just needed a place to eat so somehow that wound up to an...abnormal friendship." Rumi began with Gogo looking quite interested as she eagerly waited for her to continue.

"I was painfully shy in first-year, I didn't really say much to him but he didn't seem to mind. I assumed it was because he was always around such lively, loud people that he just wanted a place to relax. His sister found about me and approached me one day saying that he might have a crush on me. She encouraged to confess, like his life depended on it. I think she was just very concerned about him because he just got out of a really bad relationship. Well, at least that's what I heard from her. Anyways, so the day I decided to ask him out at the bench, I see him sitting very close with this other girl and I watched them for a few minutes and then out of nowhere, she kissed him." Rumi said, staring into the back of Ms. Hightower's laptop for a few very long moments.

"They kissed for awhile, it was strange of me to watch them the entire time I guess but, I couldn't help it. I was confused and hurt. They when they broke the kiss he said 'I love you Eiko but...' I walked off, feeling, disturbed I guessed. I kept running that phrase through my head, trying to remember where I heard that name before. Turns out Eiko was his ex." Rumi disclosed as she started looking out the window.

"You never found out the rest of what he said to Eiko though, did you?" Gogo asked with Rumi shaking her head," Well, what is he said,' but I've fallen for a girl named Rumi?' "

Rumi almost seemed revolted at the thought for a split-second, but then she laughed off the thought in dismissal as she said," I think I left because I realized after watching them that I didn't want to be with him anymore. He was older and I was naive. I think I liked the thought of us being together and only that. The actual thing seemed...daunting."

"Well then, guess everything happens for a reason then." Gogo stated as she scratched the back of her head," I'm sure you'll find somebody though, someday."

"Yeah, maybe someday." Rumi repeated thoughtlessly as she continued to stare out the window.


	9. An alien enthusiast?

Gogo looked down to the glass of water right in front of her. Her gaze refused to had been shifted towards the person opposite of the table and while Gogo knew she didn't need to feel awkward or uncomfortable at all, she still did. Gogo shut her eyes for a moment and lifted her gaze up, now looming into the top of the glass.

"So..." Gogo began as she felt a chill crawl down her back," How's school been, Taeko?"

The girl sitting opposite to her, Taeko plainly said," It's been alright."

Taeko had short dark brown hair gathered in a small ponytail and fair skin. She looked just about as awkward as Gogo with her teal eyes fixated on the napkin beside her as she tried to think of something to say.

Gogo and Taeko were at a cafe that specialized in tea and waffles and the two of them were sitting outside. It was a peaceful, breezy Saturday afternoon and having not seen each other in months, Taeko suggested they hang out. Gogo willingly accepted, since Taeko was her best friend in middle school. But now Gogo was starting to feel a tad regretful in her choice.

Taeko then sighed, and said," Honestly though, high-school sucks. All the girls in my class are so obsessed with makeup and stuff, taking detours to go to karaoke places, it's so weird."

"Same with me! The girls in my track club go the crepe cafe down the road and it's looks really good but it feels weird to go by myself. There are a few annoying kids in my class though, there's a really loud group of girls who always talk about their plans after-school and on the weekend." Gogo confessed, feeling as if a weight had been taking off her chest now that Taeko seemed less tense.

"Same here! And not to mention, they always talk about idols too! But gosh, math class has been killing me this year. I almost failed my last test." Taeko exasperated as a waitress came to give them their orders. They planned to shared two different waffles and a parfait if they weren't full from the waffles.

"These look great!" Gogo exclaimed as she excitedly held her knife and fork," It's been soooo long since I last came here!"

The pair of waffles were enormous and were topped with a lot of whip cream, with Gogo's waffle having slices of strawberries and kiwis in it while Taeko's had crushed up cookies in hers. The two of them each cut themselves a piece from their waffles and took their first bite, both of them sighing in delight.

"It's so good I could cry~" Gogo stated dreamily just before she cut herself another piece.

"We should really do this more often," Taeko suggested as she stuck her fork into her next piece," But instead we explore different cafes, maybe we could even go to that crepe place down the road."

"That sounds awesome!" Gogo exclaimed," Though I've never actually had a crepe before..."

Taeko took a pause from eating and looked at Gogo in shock as she said," Are you kidding me? They're so good, I'm surprised Saori hasn't taken you for one yet."

Gogo chuckled awkwardly as she said," Well, it's been awhile since me and Saori hung out like that, plus she isn't as obsessed with sweets as she used to be."

Taeko nodded in understanding and the two of them started to eat in silence for awhile. It didn't feel awkward, or tense anymore, now that Gogo had realized that Taeko hadn't changed a bit. Sure, she had a hair-cut and wore clothes that were less bright but she was still the same old Taeko. After all this time, Gogo was in truth nervous about having a reunion with Taeko, fearing the possibility that Taeko would've changed or her social skills would've gotten so bad that she wouldn't have been able to talk to her own best friend. Well, her best friend of middle-school.

Taeko and Gogo were the quiet kids in middle-school, they didn't ever really speak unless they were around each other. Those days it felt like it was just them against the world, but Gogo and Taeko liked it that way. The other girls in their classes called them the weirdos and in return they'd call them the clones. At least with Taeko, she wouldn't have to worry about being all by herself, the two of them were like a package as their teachers would describe them. But they would call themselves partners in crime.

Gogo looked down to the waffle in her plate, beginning to feel full after getting halfway in. It was hard to tell what was making her feel full, the waffles themselves or all the whipped cream and strawberries. Gogo looked up to Taeko, who looked up to her a split-second after.

"Switch?" Gogo and Taeko said in unison. They both laughed and switched their plates.

"So, Gogo, does Nakagawa seriously still use the Seifuku uniform?" Taeko asked between bites, with Gogo looked quite annoyed as she heard the question," I'm taking that as a yes?"

"It's one of the worst things about the school I swear." Gogo scoffed as she shook her head," I get people asking me all the time if I'm in middle-school and when I tell them I'm not, they don't believe me!"

"Well at least you're not a third-year, imagine how annoyed they must be with those kinda questions at this point." Taeko pointed out," But, it's not like seifuku are that bad though. They can be cute."

Just then, a bespectacled girl with deep orange hair that came to her shoulders, wearing a pastel blue seifuku walked past them. Taeko was looked at the girl in surprise, she literally couldn't have walked past them at a better time. The girl didn't notice their stares, she was too busy writing something down in a journal.

"See, it can look casual too!" Taeko claimed as she waved a hand in her direction.

"Not a traditional uniform, but ok..." Gogo said quietly, before something in the girl's sketchbook caught her eye. It appeared to a figure coloured in, hot pink, yellow, orange and brown. The picture reminded her of something, but wasn't exactly sure of what it was.

Then it came to her as a blank look in her eye appeared, paying no attention to her surroundings as she said," That better not have been what I thought it was."

The next day at school, Gogo assembled Ms. Hightower and Rumi by the bench Rumi usually had lunch at to tell them about what she saw yesterday.

"So I know this sounds a little...obtuse but, I think someone knows about the Pretty Cure." Gogo began, hoping that she wouldn't have freaked out Ms. Hightower and Rumi. The two of them however, were suspiciously calm and Rumi cleared her throat to speak for the two of them.

"I guessed we just assumed it was bound to happen sooner or later..." Rumi said sheepishly while Gogo cocked her head in Ms. Hightower's direction for her input.

"Having people know they being saved by girls in bright frilly dresses is fine and all, that just means you two have to try even harder to keep this a secret, which I'm sure wouldn't be a problem for you girls at all." Ms. Hightower explained in an oddly nonchalant voice.

"Well...this girl's drawings, I could tell it was probably me but the fact that someone we don't know knows about Pretty Cure just feels..." Gogo trailed off unsurely as her gaze went to the side.

"Think of this girl as a fan." Ms. Hightower suggested," Maybe she secretly idolizes you, not as unsettling as before right?"

 _"You're right, now it's even worse..."_ Gogo thought to herself as she pictured the girl being heartbroken upon Gogo screwing up on the job, putting even more pressure on her to take this Pretty Cure business seriously," The thing is, I feel like I've seen her before, but I have no idea where."

"Well what did she look like?" Rumi questioned casually.

"Um, she was kinda short, she wore glasses, was pretty pale and had really orange hair." Gogo described as she tried visualizing the girl again.

Rumi's eyes widened greatly as she heard that last statement, as if she knew exactly who Gogo was talking about. Gogo seemed a tad uncomfortable with the wide-eyed stare on Rumi's face as she tried to think of anyone else it could be, but nobody came to mind.

"Um, Rumi?" Gogo said as she waved a hand over Rumi's face.

"Oh god..." Rumi muttered under her breath as she stood up and led the girls over to the other side of the school. Gogo and Ms. Hightower followed her curiously until Rumi stopped in front of a tree. A few feet over sat a girl drawing away in a sketchbook, the same girl Gogo saw yesterday.

"That's your girl right?" Rumi asked in a low voice, narrowing her eyes at her. The girl wore a third-year uniform, just like Rumi and seemed to be in her own little world with her headphones in as she drew in her sketchbook.

"Yeah, how'd you know?" Gogo questioned, her voice filled with shock.

"That's Ameko, she's...infamous in our grade." Rumi began," Ameko speaks to absolutely no one, nobody really knows anything about her except for one thing. She's passionate aliens."

"I don't think I heard you quite right, mind saying that again?" Gogo asked as she looked at Ameko.

"Aliens. Ameko loves aliens. If you look in her sketchbook, that's literally all she draws. She's been drawing nothing but aliens for the last three years." Rumi explained in what Gogo could only register as a judgmental tone from Rumi. She'd never really seen Rumi so displeased before, as Rumi continued to look at Ameko in disdain.

"Do your classmates dislike Ameko?" Gogo then cautiously asked.

"You could say that," Rumi began as she watched Ameko sketch," She doesn't seem to like her classmates and well, she gives off an unwelcoming vibe."

Just before Rumi was going to defend herself, Ameko finally took notice of the trio and stared in their direction, waiting for the to explain what they were doing. Rumi and Ms. Hightower offered Gogo to Ameko as they pushed her towards the red-head. Gogo wanted to fight back but chose against as she threw on a friendly smile for Ameko.

"Um, your drawings are very neat!" Gogo complimented, feeling a bit nervous after hearing what Rumi had just said about Ameko.

Ameko had been giving her an unwelcoming, almost scared stare but the second Gogo commented on her drawings, she seemed a lot less anxious as she said," Thanks! Would you like to see more of them?"

"Uh, sure." Gogo replied as Ameko prompted her to sit down underneath the tree.

Ameko flipped through the pages and revealed a plethora of aliens right before Gogo's eyes. There were tall ones, short ones, green ones, blue ones, every kind of alien conceivable and then some. All these aliens passing through Gogo's eyes, she didn't actually expect to see _this_ many in Ameko's sketchbook. Some of them looked a bit like they were traced from a picture, others looked like nothing she had ever seen. Rumi was right, a lot of them did seem realistic, a few of them could've even been classified as gross.

But Ameko didn't seem to care as she flipped through the pages of her sketchbooks, her eyes full of pride in her work as she showed off her work.

"Aliens are strange creatures. No one knows a lot about them. Some people even say that they don't exist." Ameko scoffed as she flipped through her sketchbook at a slower pace now," I thought those people may have been right after a while, that after all these years I was the fool. But no, one faithful day, I saw an alien!"

Ameko showed Gogo a page dedicated to one alien that was a pale green and pink. It was kinda short but it had tentacles growing out of it's head and pale yellow spikes at the top. It's belly was a bright pink and it appeared to have vines encircling around it's arms. But the weird thing that didn't seem to fit in with this alien's appearance was it's lavender eyes.

"That was the first alien I ever saw." Ameko commented as she stared at the picture with Gogo," That was almost four years ago, but I know what I saw. However, I never did see this alien again."

Ameko closed the book and stared at the ground saying," I thought one day I would see that alien again. That alien was...marvelous, it looked complex and intelligent and I could've sworn I heard it speak in human tongue. I always thought one day me and that alien would meet once more. I had so many questions, so much I wanted to learn and just like that, it seemed as if my one chance was gone."

All of a sudden, Ameko then swiftly opened the book and revealed a bookmarked page with a different set of aliens, these ones being brightly coloured and bearing a distinct resemblance to Cure Joy and Cure Delight.

"But then, I got another chance!" Ameko exclaimed gleefully as she stood up immediately," Two aliens have been appearing around town, fighting some unknown force! My goal is to meet them and find out where they came from!"

"How ambitious." Gogo said weakly as she looked up at Ameko," Don't you think those aliens are a bit busy though?"

"I'll just have to catch them when they're available and not fighting their enemies," Ameko stated, with Gogo shuddering at the word 'catch'.

"What if you wind up putting yourself in danger though and you fall into the hands of the aliens' enemies?" Gogo reasoned.

"That's a risk I'm willing to take, I'm not going to quit until I get to meet those aliens!" Ameko declared.

"She's creepy." Rumi said under her breath as she watched Ameko and Gogo from behind the tree.

"Creepy or not, having her hunt the two of you down would be troublesome." Ms. Hightower mentioned," We need to give her what she wants so she won't bother you guys anymore and get herself hurt."

"Ugh, no way!" Rumi blurted out, with Ms. Hightower looking rather appalled at Rumi's response," It's just...I don't trust her to back off after she meets her 'aliens'."

"Well, maybe she wouldn't back off if some girls she just met told her to do so, but if an alien were to do that..." Ms. Hightower trailed off, hoping Rumi would catch on. Rumi rolled her eyes and watched as Gogo was stuck in one of Ameko's speeches of how aliens have always been out there in the galaxy.

Later that day, Gogo decided to hold a meeting at her place to discuss what they were to do about Ameko and her fixation on the 'aliens' she had discovered.

Stiffly Gogo began with," Since it could be dangerous for her to be seen with us during a fight, maybe we'll just pretend to bump into her on the street or something and let her interview us, ask whatever she wants."

Lulu had a disapproving look on her face while Rumi remained unreadable for now as she pretended she was more interested in looking out Gogo's window.

"Ok, maybe not on the street exactly but, how about we follow her for a bit, and when she's by herself, we'll come to her!" Gogo suggested.

"While it sounds good, what if someone catches us? Besides, up close I'm pretty sure Ameko will figure out your not aliens." Lulu pointed out.

"So I did think about that and..." Gogo began as she began rummaging through her desk drawer. A few seconds later she pulled out a pair of bright yellow rubber gloves.

"Ta-da!" Gogo interjected," With a few weird looking accessories and stuff, we could make our Cure outfits look like alien costumes. And we could even use some makeup too! What do you say Rumi?"

"Pass." Rumi said with her glare directed at the gloves in Gogo's hands.

"What?" Gogo asked in surprise as she looked at Rumi incredulously.

"It feels like we're encouraging her, like we're letting her get what she wants." Rumi stated as her gaze went to the floor," I think it's best we leave her be."

"But if we were to do that, she could get hurt." Lulu reminded Rumi.

"She wouldn't be foolish enough to actually throw herself in danger to talk to aliens." Rumi claimed," And if she does do that, it isn't our fault."

Just before Lulu was going to respond, Gogo said," I'm not just doing this to try and stop Ameko from finding out about us, I just feel like she's...lonesome. I don't know how, but I got that sense of loneliness when she saw us. All she has is her alien drawings and no one wants to see them. Wouldn't you feel bad if no one wanted to watch your videos?"

Rumi bit her lip, and stayed quiet for a few long moments until she said, "If you feel so strongly about wanting to help make her dream come true then fine, I'll help."

A few days later, Gogo and Rumi were finally ready to have Ameko interview them, it was just a matter of getting her alone now. Gogo seemed quiet excited about this while Rumi, despite having done all the work on the weird accessories to make them look like aliens, was still rather skeptic.

"Hey I was thinking..." Gogo began as they kept an eye out for Ameko," Will the make-up stay on after we transform?"

Rumi opened her mouth, though she was entirely sure how to respond since she herself didn't really know. After de-transforming the make-up was still there but during a battle she wasn't sure if she had been fighting with make-up this whole time.

"It will, since Delight's make-up stays on even after she transforms." Lulu said as she appeared from Rumi's bag," But how are you guys so sure you'll catch her walking home at this hour? School's been out for awhile now, what if she already went home?"

Gogo looked over to the sun waning down in the distance, in about an hour or so it would be nightfall. Just then Rumi spoke up.

"Ameko's in art club and that club is usually the last to end their club sessions." Rumi declared," It should've been over by now, so she'll be here any minute."

As Gogo remained on lookout for Ameko, a thought crossed Rumi's mind, prompting her to ask," What if she asks us to take her to our spaceship or something?"

Gogo turned around immediately and said," So I thought of our whole back story last night, here's how's it goes; We're two aliens who've just crashed onto Earth and we can't find our ship so we pretend that we're looking for it. By the time we meet Ameko and explain our situation, she'll either do one of two things; she'll try to help us find the ship or she'll ask us a bunch of questions about aliens and stuff and forget about the ship."

"And what if she goes with the first choice? Then what?" Lulu asked curiously.

"We'll think of something as we go." Gogo declared as she waved a hand in dismissal before continuing to look out for Ameko," Ah, she's coming! Quick!"

"This is embarrassing." Rumi griped before she and Gogo transformed.

After they transformed, Joy marveled at her outfit, the alien makeup had stayed on through the transformation. The Cures then quickly threw on the accessories Rumi made to go with their alien disguise before they tried to catch up with Ameko, leaving the bag that had Lulu in it behind.

"Is this really going to go as they were planning?" Lulu thought aloud with a sigh.

"I can't believe the kids in my class didn't even vote for my piece to be in the display." Ameko sighed to herself," No aliens, yet they still didn't like it."

Just then, Ameko heard something that sounded like a twig being snapped and turned around in an instant, alerted.

"A-am I being followed?" Ameko asked to no one in particular, seconds away from making a run for it. But then she saw a pair of shadows being cast on a wall that led to an ally, shadows that looked like they belonged to aliens.

"The two from the other day! It can't be!" Ameko yell-whispered to herself as she cautiously took a step back," But if it is, I can't let them get away again!"

She then sprinted towards the ally and found Joy and Delight standing there, pretending to act natural but failing miserably. But Ameko didn't notice this, she was too busy staring at the pair of them in pure astonishment to even care. Her mouth was agape and clasped her hands close to her throbbing chest.

"I was right..." Ameko said quietly," They're real! They're real and I found them and they exist and they're real!"

Joy was pretty startled by Ameko's reaction while Delight rolled her eyes. Ameko was breathing heavily and a silence began to form before Ameko walked closer to the girls and sputtered out,

"I have so many questions for you guys! Like what planet did you come from? How far away is it? Did you come with a whole group? Oh-! Did you get separated from your group? Is that why you've been wandering around town like this?"

"Um, no it was just the two of us. We lost our ship and that's why we're stuck here..." Joy explained, nervous that Ameko would buy into their story now.

Ameko then started to jump up and down squealing," You speak in human tongue! Do you have a native language on your planet? I'm guessing you probably do. Can you learn human languages on your homeland? Or wait, did you have to kiss somebody from here to learn our language?"

"No! Uh, I mean no, we just, you know, we already knew it." Joy stammered out before Ameko lead the group out of the ally. Ameko then began to walk in front of them, as if leading them somewhere as she began to speak to them.

"So, I'm what you'd called an alien enthusiast." Ameko explained as they walked," I knew they were real, I mean, I may've had my doubts. But I knew, I knew they were out there. I always did. In fact, in middle school, I once met an alien. Perhaps you guys know them; it was green and pink and had these tentacles that looked like vines sprouting out from it. Ring any bells?"'

"No, sorry. There are a lot of aliens out there." Joy improvised before Delight shot her a menacing look.

"Wow! A whole universe of aliens! Just think, there might even be more aliens than there are humans light-years away!" Ameko cheered, fantasizing about her alien escape," I want to meet your alien race, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow. But someday I will, I'm gonna meet them, I'm gonna become a resident on your planet and I'm going to be the happiest girl in the universe. I'd rather be anywhere else in the entire universe than other this awful planet."

Joy and Delight exchanged looks with each with the former saying," Really? You'd rather our place than anywhere on Eart- I mean, this planet?"

"Um...yeah." Ameko said quickly as she looked down at the pavement as she walked," So, what's your planet like? Should I pack my winter jacket? Do you guys ever travel to other planets?"

Elsewhere, Onyx was sitting atop of a streetlight keeping an eye out for anyone she could use to turn into an Endopath.

"If they've multiplied then that means it'd easier to find them wouldn't it?" Onyx said to herself as she twirled a black star around in her hands.

Just then she saw the two Cures, still dressed in their alien attire, walking with Ameko.

Onyx then began to scan the area for something she could use as an Endopath and saw a calculator sitting on a nearby bench.

"Today I'll be sure to to put an end to them." Onyx said to herself before she confronted the trio.

Just as the three of them walked past the street light Onyx was sitting on, Onyx jumped in front of them and held the black star in front of Ameko.

"You'll make a fantastic Endopath." Onyx commented with a smirk as the star split in two. One half of the star went towards Ameko and the other half went to the calculator, turning it into an Endopath.

"Endopath!" The monsterfied calculator roared.

"Just in time." Delight said as she started to peel off the alien gloves and wipe away the excess alien makeup on her face.

"You just wanted an excuse to take off the alien stuff huh?" Joy wondered skeptically before the two of them began to fight the Endopath. Joy ran up to the Endopath and threw a mass of punches towards it, with Delight coming from behind as Joy was keeping it busy. Once Delight made it behind the Endopath, she was moments away from attacking before Onyx yelled to the Endopath,

"There's one of them behind you!"

The Endopath then spun around and swung at Delight, who impulsively held her hands over herself while shouting,

"Pretty Cure, Ecstatic Beam!"

The Endopath stumbled backwards and Joy jumped out of the way just before it landed on her.

"Joy, who is that girl?" Delight asked as she stared at Onyx, who's gaze was still on the Endopath.

"That brat over there is Onyx, the most troublesome of all the enemies we've had so far." Joy introduced before she returned to fighting the Endopath, while Delight kept looking at Onyx in suspicion before aiding Joy in battle. Joy darted up and sent a kick up into the Endopath's chin and that lead to the Endopath impulsively grabbing a hold of Joy and flinging her into a street light nearby.

"That really hurt..." Joy grimaced as she rubbed her back tenderly.

"Joy, are you alright?" Delight called out to her teammate before the Endopath tried to grab hold of her too. Having failed in doing that, it just threw a bench at her.

"Hey, you can't do stuff like that!" Delight chided before the Endopath began to chase her.

Joy was still struggling to get up, while Delight was running for dear life when Onyx spoke up.

"Being tossed around and getting hurt, having to be run after by monsters, does stuff like this really bring you happiness?" Onyx wondered aloud," I'd sure hate to have to do stuff like that in order to be happy. I'd be in a living hell."

"Letting myself sit around when you're making monsters out of my friends would be a living hell!" Joy shot back angrily as she stood up," You think we like fighting these things? I really don't like doing this, but if not doing this means those around me will never be happy again...then I'll just keep on fighting!"

"Joy..." Delight trailed off quietly before her gaze was set on Ameko," _You just wanted to see Ameko happy, didn't you?"_

"Pretty Cure, Vivacious Spark!" Joy shouted as she blasted an orange and yellow beam out from her fingers," I don't know which is worse, these guys or her..."

Delight then took a moment to think to herself while Joy continued to fight.

 _"I know I don't like Ameko, but...Joy's right. Alien-enthusiast or not, Ameko doesn't deserve to suffer like this."_

Delight then looked over to the Endopath, trying to devise a plan on how to defeat it. She then glanced over to Joy who plunged herself straight into battle without a plan. It seemed reckless but Joy didn't appear to care as she continued to fight without question. Delight soon figured out that Joy was more likely to rely on what she felt during a fight, turning her emotion into strength. She then looked at the Cure clad in yellow, who was having a hard time against the Endopath on her own.

"I don't know how Joy can do it...but it's worth a shot." Delight thought to herself as she dashed to Joy's side.

Joy kicked the Endopath in it's side and just then, the Endopath violently picked her up and threw her to the side, but Delight managed to catch Joy before she collided with anything.

"Are you ok?" Delight asked as she put her down. Delight then tried channeling all those feelings of revulsion and anger that she knew she had to be feeling to power herself up. Joy looked a bit confused as she watched Delight focus, unsure of what she was currently trying to accomplish during their fight.

Delight leapt up and drove a kick down into the Endopath as she shouted," You're doing the wrong thing!"

Delight then looked over to Joy, giving her a nod and Cure Joy came rushing to her side to aid her in battle.

"Her words sound very empty..." Onyx noted dully as she spectated the fight with little interest.

Joy and Delight fought against the Endopath, delivering as many kicks and punches as they could, but despite their efforts, it just didn't feel like enough. Joy then tried to smash her heel against the screen of the calculator Endopath, and while she did manage to break the screen, she failed in powering down the Endopath. Joy gritted her teeth in frustration and bashed her heel against the screen once more.

"I think that's enough for today." Onyx declared tonelessly as the Endopath suddenly pinned her against the wall," Now this time for sure... I'll make an Endopath out of you."

Onyx dove down on to the Endopath's arm and Delight eyed her nervously as Onyx walked across it.

 _"Why is she so hellbent on turning me into an Endopath?"_ Joy thought to herself in distress.

 _"Two Endopaths surely aren't going to be any easier than one..."_ Delight thought to herself anxiously ," _And I can't let Joy get turned into an Endopath. No, I won't let that happen and won't stand for this anymore! If only I could find the black star on this Endopath..."_

Delight then saw something glisten in the light on the Endopath. Embedded into the bottom edge of the Endopath was the black star. Delight then darted up towards it, just as Onyx was going to place the black star on Joy.

"This is it...you're Pretty Cure days have come to an end..." Onyx declared excitedly. But just then, the Endopath had fallen down and Joy was set free while Onyx had fallen down.

Joy and Onyx were both on the ground as Delight shouted," Pretty Cure, Jovial Twinkle!"

The atmosphere turned pale pink around the group in mid-sentence and the Endopath was purified in an instant.

"It's all her fault..." Onyx grumbled angrily as she glared at Cure Delight before vanishing.

Joy picked up the white charm left from the Endopath and said to Delight," You did a great job today, even if you didn't really like hanging out with Ameko."

Delight didn't seem to be listening as she was staring down at her own hand vacantly as she said,"...Ah, I guess. But you're right, that Onyx girl...she was quite a handful compared to the others."

"Yup, the biggest brat of her team I guess. Maybe we should also ask Hightower if she knows why Onyx seems so intent on turning us into Endopaths too..." Gogo suggested with Rumi nodding in return.

Soon after Ameko woke up, with Gogo and Rumi at her side, having already removed the alien make-up. Ameko didn't say anything for a few moments, insinuating a rather awkward silence until Gogo cleared her throat and said,

"So, are you feeling alright? We kinda just saw you here and-"

"-Where they'd go?" Ameko questioned abruptly in an impatient.

"Who?" Gogo asked, wide-eyed and pretending she had no clue what Ameko was talking about.

"The...aliens..." Ameko said, but somehow she sounded a bit unsure of herself as she started to stare at the ground," I just had this odd dream...well, it was...I think it a memory actually. Remember how I was talking about that alien I met years ago? The green and pink one? I think...I think I only assumed it was an alien because I couldn't remember what happened very well. It was kinda like this gap in my memory and all I remembered was passing out at school and being rescued by an alien. But, I don't think that was an alien, no...it was...it was a girl who looked like she was my age! She called herself Cure...something and then two other girls came to her side. I don't remember they looked like though. Though today...I think I may've met...others of her kind. All this time, that figure from years ago was no alien. They were a magical girl!"

"Woah, first aliens now magical girls? Don't you think that's all a little farfetched?" Gogo attempted to reason," It could've easily been an actress or a even a cosplayer!"

"No, those girls were strong and they had powers I think, I wonder how they got them...Oh, now I wanna find out!" Ameko exclaimed excitedly as she sprung to her feet," Aliens may still be somewhere out there but...I think I'm going to push my dream of discovering aliens to the side for now. My new dream is to find those magical girls and...and become a magical girl too!"

"How ambitious of you..." Gogo cheered weakly in attempt to feign excitement.

"I feel like we did all that alien stuff for nothing..." Rumi groaned quietly," Does she even remembering her hang-out session with her so-called aliens?"

"Well maybe we should dress up like aliens again so she'll forget about the magical girls." Gogo suggested with a snicker.

"This sounds like the start of an unending cycle..." Rumi moaned hopelessly with Gogo offering her a sheepish grin," But...smiles look good on Ameko."

Onyx was back at Melancholy's main base where she was looking at the girls, and glaring at Rumi.

Idly she said as she bit back a smile," Oh where have I seen that face before?"


	10. Off to the amusement park!

Gogo walked down the sidewalk, appearing to be on lookout for something as she leaned forward and retrieved her phone from her pocket. She turned on the phone and looked at the map displayed on it, furrowing her brows at the screen.

"The last thing I'd want is to get lost here..." Gogo said quietly to herself," It'd be pretty embarrassing to text Rumi and ask for directions since it seems like I'm really close."

Gogo groaned as she tried looking over into the distance as she stated," It says the ice-cream shop is about four hundred meters that a way but..."

Gogo then turned around and looked into the opposite direction," What if it really means that a way? This isn't getting me anywhere, I don't even know what street I'm on."

After exhaling another sigh, Gogo pondered on what next she should do. Rumi called her on short notice saying that she wanted to treat Gogo to ice-cream and something else Rumi kept as a secret, but the location Rumi sent her wasn't one she was all that familiar with. And Gogo wasn't that great at reading a map.

Bordering on frantic, Gogo refreshed the map on her phone while muttering to herself," I'd ask someone for directions but there isn't even anyone around. And what if they have no clue what I'm talking about and I just make a fool out of myself?"

"Mommy do you need help finishing that?" Gogo suddenly then heard what sounded like a little girl ask as she saw two figures walking in her direction. Gogo looked over towards them and saw the taller figure with a banana split in her hands.

"We'll have to see dear." The mother answered with a chuckle, unknowingly sending hope to Gogo.

 _"I'm headed the right way!"_ Gogo cheered in her head as she suddenly began to run until she saw the ice-cream shop. She panted for a few moments, silently cursing herself for thoughtlessly sprinting towards the direction where the ice-cream shop was supposed to be.

"There's no doubt, this is it." Gogo said as she looked at the ice cream shop before she read the name of it written on it's glass doors," Dream Scoops."

Gogo opened the door to the shop and instinctively breathed in a sigh of relief, something about an ice cream shop never failed to make Gogo feel at ease. Maybe it was that aroma of waffle cones that flowed throughout the small shop or just the sight of all the pretty colours of ice cream buckets displayed at the front.

The line at the shop wasn't very long and there appeared to be only two people behind the counter right now. One was a fair-skinned tall guy with light brown hair and the other was a girl with a tan complexion and blue hair. Gogo seemed somewhat interested in the girl as she unconsciously started to stare at her. The girl behind the counter was currently too busy taking orders to notice Gogo's stare.

 _"How does she get her hair like that?"_ Gogo wondered as she stared at the girl. Her hair was arranged in what could only be described as a single large loop above her head.

The girl eventually noticed Gogo and her staring and soon cleared her throat asking," What can I get for you?"

"Ah, um do you have any milkshakes?" Gogo asked, not meeting the girl's gaze yet and still looking at her hair," Also, is Rumi in right now?"

"At least look at me when I'm trying to take your order." The girl said under her breath before turning her head to the back room and saying," Takai! You got a visitor!"

Rumi appeared out of the an entrance that seemed to lead to the ice-cream shop's backroom wearing the exact same uniform as the girl that Gogo was conversing with. Rumi offered Gogo and the girl a kind smile, unaware of how tense Gogo was beginning to feel in the presence of this girl.

"Gogo, I'm glad you were able to find the place, would you like to get a milkshake before we talk?" Rumi offered with Gogo nodding vigorously response.

After Gogo got her milkshake, the two of them sat outside the shop on a bench in silence for a few moments. Gogo took large sips from her cup, the chocolate milkshake Rumi made her being better than she expected as she tried thinking of what to say to Rumi now. Gogo held back on a sigh; She still wasn't able to ease into a conversation with Rumi but at least she didn't feel out of place sitting next to Rumi like she used to.

"My coworker Chinatsu can be a little intimidating sometimes, sorry if she made you feel uncomfortable or anything..." Rumi began sheepishly with a forced chuckle," She's pretty stern sometimes but she's really nice once you get to know her."

Gogo just nodded in understanding as she continued to drink the milkshake, forcing Rumi to talk in hopes that awkward silence wouldn't form .

"Right, um I guess you wanted to know why I asked you to come over to see me today! Well, I guess I could've just easily said this over text but..." Rumi began stiffly,"...You've been to the carnival that happens every June here right? The one that really huge Ferris wheel and all those games and stuff?"

Blinking for a few moments, Gogo remembered the carnival with ease as she pictured it in her mind. She may've only went once, but going there was unforgettable experience. She didn't get to go every year like how other classmates or even Taeko did because her household was too big, plus the boys were too small to go on a lot of the rides and the admission fees were outrageous. But the night Gogo went about several years ago, she could recall all the rides lit up as she went at night and having her hand gripped tightly by her father as she walked in a giant crowd of people.

"So, a cousin of mine works in admissions for the carnival and she was able to get free tickets and I thought it would be fun for us to go together!" Rumi offered," So would you like to go?"

"Yeah, that sounds like fun. It's actually been a long time since I went anyways..." Gogo admitted nervously.

"I only got three though and I was going to give the last one to my brother, is that ok?" Rumi asked with Gogo nodding in response," Great, so the tickets are valid for any day during the time the carnival's open so we'll just have to decide on when we can go."

Gogo walked home about an hour after, once the two of them decided on what day they were going to go. Gogo started imagining how the day going to the fair with Rumi would go and wondered what kinda rides Rumi would want to go on. Gogo never got to go on many of the rides at the carnival when she went her first time and all of a sudden Gogo started feeling somewhat unprepared.

"The rides probably aren't even all that scary, maybe they'll actually be fun." Gogo said to herself with a shrug as she pictured herself on a roller coaster with Rumi. Gogo smiled a small smile at the thought, but then she imagined herself getting awfully nauseous with her knees wobbling as she exited the ride with Rumi.

Gogo stared up to the sky, seeming only slightly annoyed to herself as she said," I just can't think positively, can I?"

Once Rumi's shift was finished she walked home in the opposite direction that Gogo had walked in and took in her surroundings to clear her mind. The nights were getting longer now and so the sun was finally beginning to set. It wasn't that dark out but the night grew cool quicker than Rumi had expected. Rumi thought about how she offered to take Gogo to the carnival with her, wondering if it could've gone better. Gogo did seem interested in going, that was undoubtedly a good sign but somehow Rumi still wondered if she wanted to go with her. It would've been a good chance to bond with Gogo and maybe things would become less, awkward between them after this.

"Somehow, it still feels like there's some kind of friction between us and it's not just my fault or just hers...we're equally awkward." Rumi thought to herself," She could be annoyed with me for dragging her out to tell her about the carnival, but she did seem to like the milkshake quite a bit, so maybe that made up for the walk. Maybe if we brought Miss Hightower along, things wouldn't feel uncomfortable. That could work but...I can't give her Kei's ticket."

Rumi remembered her cousin handing her the tickets a couple of days ago.

 _"Are you sure it's ok? You don't want to give them to your friends or your parents?" Rumi asked her cousin Akira curiously._

 _"My friends are working at the carnival too and my parents aren't really interested in going so it's fine! Take Kei and a friend!" Akira suggested as she handed her the tickets._

 _Rumi nodded as she took the tickets, looking at them in her hands as she said," This isn't really Kei's thing either."_

 _"I had a feeling you were going to say that, but my bro thinks Kei should go. He seen at work and he said that Kei has been looking pretty bored lately, like he could use some excitement. Nothing like an amusement park to cheer someone up, wouldn't you agree?" Akira responded with a big grin on her face._

As Rumi approached her house, she fished for her keys in her purse as walked towards the door. She looked up and saw that the light were on in her brother's room. As Rumi found her keys, she pulled them out from her bag and opened the door quietly. Rumi took a deep breath as she walked upstairs towards Kei's room, standing next to the doorway of his bedroom.

"Hey, I told my friend about the carnival tickets and she said says she's down to come with us." Rumi said casually, though she knew her tone of voice wouldn't change how Kei would respond.

"I still don't want to go." Kei said flatly. He was sitting at the writing desk in his room, with his feet up on the desktop as he inspected his glasses for dirt on them.

"But everyone wants to go, I mean it's not just rides there; they've got games, the best takoyaki in town and..." Rumi trailed off, knowing that her words were falling on deaf ears," It's not the carnival I know I just...I want you to have fun for once."

"Whatever." Kei said uninterestedly as he reached for his phone on the other side of his desk.

 _"It would take much more than an amusement park to cheer up Kei."_ Rumi thought to herself.

Rumi didn't waste another second of her time and simply walked off to her room. She sat cross-legged on her bed, with only the moon giving light to her room. She thought about that day when she received those tickets from her cousin Akira. Later that day when she had been giving the tickets, she got to have dinner with Akira's family and as always, the dinners with Akira and her household were nothing like what Rumi was used to at her home. Akira would talk about her day with her parents and they'd discuss other normal stuff and Akira would always tease her brother at least once at the dinner table. Those two were always very close, and Rumi couldn't help but feel envious whenever she saw them.

"Must be nice." Rumi said to herself with a sigh.

Next weekend, Gogo was staring down her wardrobe, trying to decide what would be best to wear for today's outing. Scrutinizing all of the shirts hung up in her closet, Gogo was indecisive as she gingerly picked out one t-shirt from it's hanger. Usually Gogo wasn't really so unsure of what to wear out and as her sister walked past her room, she noticed Gogo staring down the shirt in her hands.

"Trying to impress Rumi?" Saori smirked as Gogo continued to look at the shirt.

"Not really, just trying to find a shirt I'd be ok with messing up with my-"

"-Gogo, that's gross." Saori interrupted," You're supposed to be excited about going to the carnival! Not worrying about how scary the rides will be!"

"It was exciting at first, but I've never even gone on a roller-coaster, so I just want to be prepared for the worst." Gogo shrugged as she tossed an extra shirt into her bag.

Saori rolled her eyes and asked," So it's just you and Rumi going?"

"No, her brother's tagging along too," Gogo responded as she packed some snacks into her bag, receiving a suspicious look from her sister," What? I heard food from the carnival is expensive."

"As practical as ever. Either way, I hope you have fun today." Saori said as she left Gogo to her snack packing.

Rumi threw on a sleeveless top in her room before she checked the time on her watch. There was still quite a bit of time left until they would leave. Rumi glanced over towards her door, tempted to check up on Kei and see if he was ready. Rumi could already see herself and Gogo having tons of fun at the carnival, riding every roller-coaster at the park, while Kei would be sulking away at in a bench in the corner. She knew that her cousin already talked to Kei last night, practically forcing him to go, telling him that the amusement park was a fun place and he was sure to have a good time there. If only her cousin knew that his claim really couldn't apply to Kei, who had a hard enough time putting on a fake smile for them that night.

Just then, Rumi's phone rang and she picked it up in an instant.

"Hi Chinatsu, how's it going?" She asked as she placed the tickets inside her bag," Yeah, I'm heading out today with Kei and my friend Gogo. Cover a shift? I don't think I'd be able to today. Well, what do you mean there's like no one else there? Weren't the new girls gonna work today? I see, well, if I come in, could I get to leave early? Ok, thanks, I'll see in you in an hour."

Rumi hung up the phone and threw it against the bed," Great, work was the last place I wanted to be at today."

She changed out of her outfit and threw on her uniform as she shouted outside her room," Kei! I got called in for work so I have to come later. You and my friend Gogo are going to go together."

"No thanks." Kei shouted back as Rumi stormed into his room," Besides, can't we all just go tonight?"

"But-!" Just then, Rumi's phone rang again," Oh hi Gogo! Excited for today? Oh, that's really nice of you. So...would you have any objections with us going tonight?"

"Well, I kinda wished you mentioned that earlier, cuz I'm getting a ride with my parents right now. They're spending the day with some relatives and the park is on the way there." Gogo responded into the phone, with the park coming into view.

"Oh, you're almost there? Ok, then that's totally fine, it's just that I'll have to join you guys a bit later, work called me in, sorry about that. I'll see you then ok?" Rumi said as she hung up the phone and glared at Kei.

"Now what did I do?" Kei asked in mock defense.

"Nothing, but you can't go looking like _that_." Rumi declared as she examined Kei from head to toe. Wearing nothing but a sweater, old t-shirt and jeans, Rumi held back on a sigh before she started to look through Kei's closet, knowing that he owned some nice clothes, it's just that he never once wore them yet.

She threw a blue and grey checkered button shirt with short sleeves and a pair of tan shorts in his direction.

"Put these on." Rumi insisted while Kei scrutinized the top she just pelted at him.

"This looks like a tablecloth." Kei commented flatly.

"Ok, so if you leave now you could get there in about thirty-five, forty minutes depending on traffic...gosh I should've just gave Gogo her ticket before today. Whatever, just when you get there, keep an eye out for Gogo; she's short, has dark burgundy hair and wears sunflowers in her hair and- You're listening aren't you?"

"Not really." Kei admitted uninterestedly as he started to check through his phone, the clothes Rumi picked out for him now on the floor.

"Look, right now, you aren't just going because I told you to. You're now in charge of making sure this gets to Gogo." Rumi said as she put the pair of tickets in his hand," And you're now also in change of making sure that Gogo has fun today."

"Pass." Kei replied, but Rumi didn't desist.

"Can you just go and give Gogo the ticket then?" Rumi asked," I'm not in the mood to argue at this point, I just don't want Gogo to waiting around there all by herself."

"Fine." Kei answered as he shooed Rumi away so he could change. Rumi smiled a small smile at her little victory and gathered her things before heading to work.

It was getting hot at the park and standing out in the open at the admission gate was starting to get to Gogo.

"Is she here yet?" Gogo asked as she started to fan herself weakly with her hand, under the impression that she'd be at these gates until Rumi was done with work. When she was told that she spend the morning with Kei, Gogo felt a rush of fear come over her, mainly because she wasn't prepared for this. Had she had known that it was just going to be her and Kei for most of the day, she would've tried to think of what rides a guy like him would prefer, some killer conversation topics and other stuff. Earlier, the thought of hanging with Kei and only Kei made extremely uneasy, but as the minutes passed, Gogo found herself less caught up in her worries and focused on how hot she was getting out here as she waited. As time dragged on, it seemed less and less likely that Kei was going to come, so gave up on the thought of spending time with him and concentrated more on the heat.

"Are you sure your friend's still coming?" A security guard asked Gogo, taking note of how long she had been stand at the corner here by herself.

Gogo nodded tiredly in response and the guard offered to get her some water. She nodded and the guard left for the water.

She looked towards the park, it was as big as she remembered it, maybe even bigger. She could hear screams from the roller coaster near the entrance of the park, as well as music playing from inside. Gogo watched as dozens of people entered the park, all them looking pretty excited for the day ahead of them. At this point, Gogo wasn't feeling as excited as before and just wanted to lie down in the shade.

The guard walked over with a cup of water for Gogo. She eyed it eagerly and took large sips from it.

"So what does this friend of yours look like?" The guard as while Gogo was still drinking.

"Good question." Gogo muttered under her breath," Um, he's tall and his hair is dark, he wears glasses and he kinda looks..."  
"-Like that?" The guard interrupted as he pointed to Kei standing a few feet away from them, searching the crowd for Gogo.

Gogo nodded and started calling out Kei's name. As he walked over to her, Gogo started to feel nervous all over again as her face turned red.

"Ready to go?" Gogo asked awkwardly as she kept her gaze away from Kei's eyes and narrowed in on his feet.

Kei was about to say no but thinking about how Gogo was probably going to be alone for most of the morning made him pity her. So Kei nodded and the two of them walked towards the admission gate. Gogo waved to the guard and he gave her a thumbs-up and wink, which confused her slightly.

As the two of them walked into the park, Gogo took in her surroundings. The music was louder now, and the area was a little less crowded than the admission gates. From here, Gogo could see a line of restaurants on either side of her as well as four different entrances to different areas of the park. She looked up at saw a Ferris wheel on her left, a giant roller coaster on her right along with a sign pointing towards a mini water park and an even bigger roller coaster in the far distance straight ahead of her.

"This place is huge!" Gogo gawked as she tried to decide which ride they could go on first.

"Any ride you wanted get over with?" Kei asked as he looked around the park, appearing bored already.

Gogo started to mentally go over all of options and declared," Let's try the Ferris wheel."

The two of them walked over to the line of the Ferris wheel, and saw that the line was somewhat long, but not as long as the line for the roller-coaster they just walked past.

" _Great, a long line means a long awkward silence if I don't start thinking of anything to say."_ Gogo said to herself.

She glanced over towards Kei, who was just staring at a nearby stream. A look of apprehension appeared on her face as she tried thinking of something, anything to say.

" _Weather sure is brutal today? Yeah sure, start with the most blandest thing to talk about. It's really busy today? Boring, but maybe it could work. Wait, maybe I can just talk about the park and ask about his favourite ride here. That's perfect!"_

Gogo then cleared her throat and asked," So, which ride do you think is the best one here?"

"Don't know." Kei said curtly, slightly discouraging Gogo in doing so.

Gogo tried laughing it off and replied with," Yeah, with so many rides here, I get why you can't pick just one!"

" _Christ, I sounded so fake, like I was in some kinda commercial for the park. So, maybe talking about the park wasn't the best idea. But if I can't talk about the park with him then what else is there?"_

"Rumi said you came early?" Kei asked casually.

"Huh? Oh, well yeah 'cuz my parents and brothers were going to see some family members out of town. I could've gone but we're heading to the park today and I also don't really like that part of the family."

For a split-second, Gogo could've sworn she saw Kei smile, so she cautiously continued her statement," They ask a bit too many weird questions for my liking."

"That's what the worst relatives always do." Kei informed, with Gogo smiling in response.

They went on the Ferris wheel and Gogo couldn't help but admire the view when they reached the top of it. It was unlike anything she had ever seen as she gazed down to the bottom where groups of people were crowded in lines for other rides around the area.

"Hey look at the size of that slide! And check out that ship swinging next to the water! And look at that, that thing!" Gogo marveled as she pointed to a ride that she couldn't quite describe.

Curious, Kei looked over in the direction Gogo was pointing at and saw the ride she was pointing to," It's called the Scrambler, should we go on that ride later?"

"For sure!"

The rest of the day was filled with Gogo and Kei going on as many rides as they could, minus the roller-coasters as Gogo had yet to find the courage for going on them. Gogo was thankful that Kei wasn't bothering her or asking her why she had been avoiding the roller-coasters the entire time as he followed behind her without question. After just going on the swinging ship though, Gogo wasn't sure if she really was ready for a roller coaster yet as she took a seat on a nearby bench.

"It's about three now, so it won't be long until Rumi gets here." Gogo noted," Maybe we can go on one more ride and then wait for her?"

Kei nodded and then asked," So what ride do you want to go on next?"

Gogo pointed towards the Scrambler while staring at Kei.

"Ah, I didn't realize it was right next to the swinging ship." Kei said as Gogo started to run over to the ride.

Gogo and Kei got on the scrambler and sat down in the seats while waiting for the ride to start.

"Would you say this is a good ride?" Gogo asked, the excitement creeping up in her voice.

"It's ok, I guess." Kei asked, seconds before the ride began. The two were spun around in their seats, with Gogo screaming and Kei remaining mute. The ride was so fast that Gogo could feel tears streaming out from her eyes. Unlike the swinging ship, she wasn't feeling like she was getting butterflies, this time she was actually enjoying herself quite a bit. Once the ride stopped, Gogo felt rather dizzy as she stepped out and had to take a moment to just stand in place before walking again.

"That was the best one yet!" Gogo exclaimed," We'll have to go on that one again with Rumi, in the mean time, let's have some of the snacks I brought in my bag."

The two of them walked over to a bench located in a section of the park with a large playground and fun-house mirrors around it.

Gogo opened up her bag and laid out all the snacks between them on the bench she brought for the day.

"Ok, so I brought chocolate and strawberry Pocky, a bag of chips, some cookies, and sour candy." Gogo listed off as the two of them stared down at the snacks in front of them.

"I'm just gonna get some fries over there ok?" Kei stated as he pointed to a food stall nearby. Gogo nodded and Kei left.

"Great, now I'm craving fries." Gogo said to herself as the scent from the food stall started to fill the air. Just then, Gogo started to hear the sound of a kid crying and saw a little boy standing by himself with his arms over his eyes. Gogo took a closer look at him; his eyes were all red from crying, he wore a blue and white striped shirt with dark shorts and he had a backpack that seemed one size too big for him on his back.

Gogo approached him, kneeling down next to him as she said," Hey little man, are you ok?"

"I can't find my mom anywhere!" The little boy bawled as Gogo put her hand on his shoulder," I think she went home without me!"

"No, I don't think she'd do that; she's probably worried sick about you," Gogo assured him as Kei walked over to the two of them with a box of fries in hand," So where did you last see your mom?"

"We were getting out of the line for the merry-go-round and the crowd was really big and then she was gone! I looked around the entire merry-go-round and I couldn't find her there! What if I never see her again?"

The little boy started crying again and Kei then spoke up.

"Hey, crying isn't going to get you anywhere right now. I mean, what would Macrochamp do?" Kei asked him.

The boy seemed surprised momentarily and then said," He'd get back on his feet because he's got bad guys to beat!"

Gogo thought she saw Kei mouth the last part of that sentence with the boy, but she figured she might've just imagined that.

"Ok, how about we look for a security guard and ask them to help out? Maybe ask them if the mom has already been in contact with them?" Gogo suggested.

Kei nodded and before they went to search for security guards, Gogo whispered to Kei," Nice job on calming the kid down. But, how did you know he liked that Macrochamp guy?"

Kei then pointed to the boy's backpack which had a huge image of Macrochamp on it.

On the other side of the park Nijoux sat on top on a food stall, eating cotton candy off of a stick.

"Strange, it's like eating a sickeningly sweet cloud. But's it's sticking onto my lipstick..." Nijoux noted as she stuck her tongue out.

"Excuse miss? You need to get down from there." A security guard shouted to her.

"Ah that's right. I've got better things to do than this." Nijoux reminded herself as she stood up and saw a man sitting by himself on a bench.

"Endopath, turn his cheer into absolute fear!" Nijoux shouted as she materialized a black frowning star in front of the man. The star multiplied with one of them heading towards him and the other towards the cotton candy in Nijoux's hand.

Nijoux let go of the cotton candy and it morphed into an Endopath.

"Endopath!" The monsterfied cotton candy stick bellowed.

"Ayato! Thank goodness we found you!" The mother of the little boy cried as she knelt down and hugged the boy tightly," You must've been scared to death! I'm glad you found these two to help you find me. Thank you so much for your help!"

"It was nothing, really" Gogo said sheepishly, before the group of them heard shouting coming from the other end of the park, along with the roars of the Endopath.

"What was that?" The mother asked before they all saw the cotton candy Endopath rampaging through the park.

"I think we've all had enough excitement for one day, we should all get out of here now!" Gogo declared as they all started to run towards the entrance of the park. Gogo ran behind them them and once they were far enough she hid behind a tree and reached out for her locket.

"Wait." She said to herself before she transformed.

"An Endopath made from cotton candy?" Well that's going to be a pain to try and attack, I'm at the entrance, I'll try to sneak into the park ok? Thanks for telling me in advance Gogo." Rumi said as she hung up, dashing towards the entrance.

"Pretty Cure, Vivacious Spark!" Joy shouted as she hopped from the top of a lamp post and landed behind a bench. The attack didn't do much to the Endopath, and it seemed as if all that happened was that the Endopath absorbed it.

"Oh come on! I know you can do better than that! Aren't you the one who loves to punch things a trillion times and stuff?" Nijoux chided from the top of the food stall.

"I'm not trying to punch an Endopath made from cotton candy." Joy hissed with her eyes narrowed at Nijoux,"I hope Rumi gets here soon..."

"So then what will you do? Because if my Endopath puts up a boring fight, then I get bored and then when I get bored I leave and find a better way for my Endopath to entertain me." Nijoux stated as laced her hands under her chin.

"Fine, if it's a fight that you want..." Joy began as she leapt up from behind the bench and towards the stick of the Endopath's body," It's a fight that you'll get!"

Joy began punch the stick of the Endopath furiously, while Nijoux and the Endopath looked at her in confusion.

Nijoux snapped her fingers, shouting out," Endopath, you know what to do."

The Endopath leered at Joy and then leaned down as it tried grabbing her.

"Pretty Cure, Effervescent Beam!" Delight cried out as she aimed her attack towards the feet of the Endopath. Joy stepped back and tripped from her footing while the Endopath was blasted a few feet away from them.

"Next time, aim farther from where I'm standing." Joy recommended as she brushed herself off.

Delight responded, "Sorry, I just thought that if I attacked it's body-"

"It'd absorb the attack right? Well, I thought of something that might work for attacking, just follow my lead ok?" Joy said as she began running away from the Endopath with Delight following behind her.

"What are they trying to do, escape? Endopath, you've got to follow them!" Nijoux directed with the Endopath nodding in response before it chased the Cures down.

Delight seemed confused but didn't question Joy as they kept running further into the park. The Endopath was gaining up on them quite quickly though, to the point where the Endopath almost got a hold of Cure Delight. Nijoux was following behind all three of them, seeming out of breath before she began ordering the Endopath around again.

"That's it, I've had enough of their games! Endopath, we're going to the park entrance now!" Nijoux commanded.

"No you're not." Joy said as she ran up to the Endopath and picked it up by the stick as she started to drag it away," Had a feeling this thing would be light!"

Nijoux looked somewhat appalled with her mouth agape as she said," Y-you can't do that!"

"Sure I can! I'm doing it right now, aren't I?" Joy pointed out as she continued to run away with the Endopath.

"I sure hope we're getting close to your destination..." Delight said quietly as she noticed the Endopath was starting to thrash around in Joy's grip.

Delight suddenly bumped into the Endopath without realizing Joy had stopped running. She looked at Joy in confusion before realizing why she had stopped. In front of them was a enormous pool with water-slides at the the opposite end of it.

"Joy are you going to toss that thing in there?" Delight questioned as she looked down at the deep pool in front of them.

"That's the plan!" Joy answered as she threw the Endopath in the pool. The Endopath splashed the girls and struggled to get out of the pool once it had been submerged. Once the Endopath finally came out from the water, it seemed sluggish and less willing to fight with it's black star now exposed just above the center of it's body.

"Well, now it's going to be all sticky." Delight pointed out, cringing at the thought of fighting it.

"Not for long," Joy stated as she up tot he sky," It'll dry out, that's when it'll be easier to fight it. In the meanwhile..."

Joy started running up towards the Endopath and jumped up while shouting," Pretty Cure, Vivacious Spark!"

This time, the Endopath was unable to absorb the attack and fell backwards upon contact with Joy's attack.

Nijoux finally caught up to them, horrified at the sight of her creation now as she yelled," What did those two do to you?!"

Delight darted up towards the Endopath and kicked it in it's center, surprised by how quickly it was getting dried up. Now it was way more easier to land a punch or kick on the Endopath.

The two Cures started to spar with the Endopath, who was having a hard time keeping up with them. Despite thinking that Joy's plan would've backfired on her, Delight was surprised to see that her plan actually worked. At this point the Endopath was pretty much done for, but just then the Endopath picked up Joy and held her up as high as it could. Delight stopped what she was doing and tried to think of a way to get Joy out of his grasp.

"Will you let me go?!" Joy yelled as she tried to push herself out of the Endopath's fist.

"Now throw her out the park!" Nijoux demanded in excitement.

Delight shook her head while saying quietly," Not happening."

The Cure clad in white then leapt up high and shouted," Pretty Cure, Effervescent Beam!"

The Endopath was knocked over and tossed Cure Joy up into the air before it fell into the pool again.

Delight was able to catch Joy in her arms and the two of them ran over towards the Endopath. It laid there in defeat, with the black star on it's body cracked in two.

"Gross." Joy commented before looking over to Delight as they conjured up their candles.

"Pretty Cure, Jovial Elation!" The two of them shouted in unison, turning the area around them a pale yellow and white in mid-sentence. An array of yellow, orange, white and blue lights then appeared and erased the black stars on the center of the Endopath.

"Serves me right for making an Endopath out of cotton candy." Nijoux said, narrowing her eyes at the Cures before she vanished.

Soon, the park was reopened and filled with people again. The girls were able to reunite with Kei and go on a few rides together. The park was a bit busier now, so the lines for all the rides Rumi and Gogo wanted to go on were inevitably much longer than before.

Kei left the girls momentarily to get them bottled water and Rumi wasted no time in telling Gogo what was on her mind.

"Gogo, I just wanted to say thanks for coming with me to the park and putting up with Kei for a couple of hours. I hope he didn't trouble you too much." Rumi said as she looked over to the ride a few feet away from them.

Gogo shook her head, as she said," Not really. I kinda had fun with him today."

Rumi looked at her in surprise and responded with," Actually? I didn't think it'd be possible for anyone to have fun with him."

Gogo forced out a chuckle, it would've made sense if the two of them weren't able to gel together but saying that no one could have fun with him sounded like an overstatement.

"Is he that...antisocial?" Gogo asked cautiously.

Rumi nodded," Won't make friends at work, at school, he never even smiled once during the last family dinner we had at our cousins he's just..." Rumi then looked over to Gogo, who seemed a bit surprised,"...Well, if you were able to have fun with him, then maybe he's just a work in progress."

"Like me!" Gogo replied with a wink, making Rumi chuckle a little.


	11. The storybook princess needs our help!

It was getting warmer these days as summer was creeping up. At last, the school term was coming to a close but for Gogo and Rumi, they had a feeling they wouldn't be able to unwind and enjoy their summer the way they usually did. It was lunchtime and the courtyard of the school was packed with students who chose to take advantage of the nice and have their lunch outside. Gogo was convinced to have lunch with her fellow members from her track-club while Rumi and Ms. Hightower had lunch in Rumi's usual spot.

Today, Rumi was surprised to find that her beloved spot hadn't been stolen from her on this lovely day, as it had happened to her to her before on days like this. Perhaps now, people just knew better than to take the spot that she always sat at everyday. Rumi and Ms. Hightower ate their lunches in silence, the only sound filling the air around them being the distant voices of students in the courtyard.

After the two of them finished their lunches, Ms. Hightower was the one to break the silence saying," So, another Endopath showed up at the amusement park?"

Rumi nodded, which led to Ms. Hightower commenting," That must have a big mess. Guessing it wasn't the easiest thing to fight with either"

"That's what I said!" Rumi responded,"At least Gogo had a plan though. Otherwise things really could have gotten out of hand that day."

nodded slowly and stared at the ground for a few moments. Rumi looked at her with a somewhat pained expression on her face. She could tell that Ms. Hightower must've been feeling guilty for not being there.

"But, it's not like the day was all bad! You missed out, Gogo and I had so fun at the amusement park! Maybe, we could all go together next year!" Rumi suggested brightly. Ms. Hightower smiled a small smile at Rumi's offer but then a thought came to her.

"Takai, I assume you have some ideas on what your going to do after high-school right?" Ms. Hightower asked casually.

Rumi bit her lip and slowly she said," I've been considering a bunch of stuff; I could go into Fashion Design, or Interior Design or maybe even Esthetics...I dunno, there's a lot things I'm interested in, so I guess I'll go with whatever I feel works best for me."

Ms. Hightower nodded in agreement and the silence formed again.

A few moments later, the wind began to pick up and the two of them heard a voice shouting. The voice grew louder as a girl appeared running after some scattered sheets of paper. The sheets were caught by Ms. Hightower's face. Irritated, Ms. Hightower removed the pages away from her faces, giving Rumi and herself a better view of them. On the pages were very detailed drawings of lush landscapes with many girls dressed like princesses on them.

"Just what the heck is this?" Ms. Hightower said as she squinted at the pages, while Rumi admired the rendering of the drawings.

The girl chasing the papers stopped in front of Rumi and Ms. Hightower, eyes wide with fear as she realized the two of them were looking at the pages.

"Could I have those back?" The girl asked nervously, her voice soft but shaky as she watched Ms. Hightower and Rumi look at the drawings.

"These are beautiful! Did you draw these yourself?" Rumi asked as she gathered the drawings and gave them back to the girl.

The girl seemed a bit confused, like she wasn't expecting Rumi to react like that.

"Would you...like to know more about them?" The girl cautiously asked.

"Sure!" Rumi answered cheerfully.

"She calls herself the Storybook Princess?" Gogo asked as she sprawled out on the bench where Rumi had lunch at. It was after-school now, and Rumi just couldn't wait to tell Gogo about what happened earlier to her and Ms. Hightower.

"Yup! Her real name is Yua Akagami, she's a second-year, and her art is so pretty and colourful and you just had to see it Gogo! Everything she drew looked so sparkly and girly and full of life! None of her princesses look the same and they all wear pretty dresses and have really nice crowns and Yua even asked if she could model a princess after me!" Rumi explained in glee.

"So you're ok with being a princess, but being an alien doesn't work for you?" Gogo questioned sarcastically.

"Who wouldn't want to be a princess though?" Rumi asked, imaging how Yua would draw her princess persona.

"Hm, my brothers, probably your brother, myself..." Gogo listed while Rumi was still picturing the kind of princess Yua would portray her as.

 _"Maybe she gets locked up in a tower for fifteen years and learns to pick locks and then she becomes a thief who steals from the rich and gives to the poor! Or maybe, she's a princess who likes to leave her castle and does odd jobs for the people of her kingdom! I hope she draws her really really pretty, with makeup that goes with the dress- Or! She has different dresses and her makeup is always coordinated with her outfits!_

"Rumi? You got a visitor..." Gogo said in a mildly agitated, deadpan tone that snapped Rumi back to Earth. Standing by the opposite edge of the bench was Yua, with a rather large sketchbook in hand, so large it obscured her body from her chin to her her waist. She looked worried, and wondered if now was a good time to see Rumi as she seemed...busy.

"Oh Yua, you're already here!" Rumi said in an awfully loud tone, making Gogo roll her eyes. Yua giggled and held her pencil in front of Rumi while staring at her intently.

Rumi stood still patiently as Yua continued to study her. A silence grew around them and the only one who seemed confused by what was going on was Gogo as she darted her gaze from Rumi to Yua.

"Why are you doing that?" Gogo asked, sounding more impatient than she realized as she watched Yua watch Rumi.

"I'm checking proportions." Yua answered as she started to make sketches in her book," During my study period, I kinda got carried away and started to come up with ideas for what my princess version of Rumi would look like."

Yua flipped to a page in the back of her sketchbook and showed off a very colourful page filled with girls that looked like Rumi wearing elegant ball gowns. The girls looked at the sketches carefully in awe of them. Each girl had on a dress completely different from the other; Some dresses were elegant and embedded with a bunch of little rhinestones and pearls, other were more playful in style with vibrant colours and weren't as ornate. But both the girls had to admit that Yua had an eye for design.

"The best thing about these sketches was that I felt like a had bunch of different choices for Rumi's dress!" Yua beamed as the girls continued to look at her sketches," Nothing felt too unusual or out of character but...I think that's only because I don't know you all that well yet."

"Well you guys did only meet during lunch," Gogo reminded them sheepishly.

"I know, maybe I rushed into this a bit. Maybe I should get to know you first," Yua suggested, with Rumi seeming interested in the idea.

"Oh, it'd be like a little interview, wait, it feels as if I'm getting an audition!" Rumi stated eagerly.

Gogo then yawned loudly before she said," Whatever you guys are doing, could go somewhere that has air-conditioning to do it?"

"Point taken." Yua said as she only just noticed that she could sweat forming at her forehead," Do either of you guys live near the school? We'd have to take two buses to get to my place."

"I do! We can all go to my place." Rumi suggested.

So the three of them starting walking to Rumi's house. During the walk there, Yua wasted no time in telling the girls about her previous experiences in drawing the girls around her as princesses, making Gogo surprised and Rumi feeling a bit disappointed in knowing that she wasn't the only one that Yua wanted to make a princess.

"I think every girl is a princess! But, I only capture the lives of the bravest, most interesting and most ambitious princesses out there!" Yua explained," When we get to Rumi's house, I could show you guys the other princesses I've drawn."

When the girls got to Rumi's house, Rumi led the girls to the living room where Yua laid out another sketchbook, smaller than the one she used for her sketches, to show to the girls. Rumi went to the kitchen to get snacks for her guests leaving Gogo and Yua to look through the second sketchbook at the living room's table.

"This girl volunteered at a charity center every Tuesday and Friday and on the weekends. She was really outgoing and her laugh was really infectious too." Yua said as she pointed to a princess with medium brown hair that went to her shoulders and wore a peach and pink dress. Yua flipped the page.

"This girl's in Rumi's grade and she tutored the kids in my class after school. Last semester half of my class, myself included, was failing math and so she spent like a month trying her hardest to help us all out." Yua said, as Gogo stared at the princess on this page. She had very dark hair that went to her waist and wore an silver and lilac dress.

Rumi returned to the table with snacks and Yua took out a notepad from her bag while Gogo continued to flip through the pages.

"Ok so, Ms. Takai. For the "audition" I want you to be completely honest with each question I ask. I'll try my best not to ask you anything too personal but if I happen to, you can tell me if I do ok?" Yua debriefed.

"Sounds good, ask away~" Rumi said as she sat back into single-seat chair behind her.

"Alright, what's your zodiac sign?" Yua asked in a clipped voice, sounding as if she just wanted to get the question out of the way.

Gogo took a pause from looking through Yua's sketchbook and gave her a questionable look while muttering," Why is that important for this?"

"I'm a Cancer." Rumi answered with Yua scribbling this and some other notes into her notepad, "Ooh, Yua what's your zodiac sign?"

"Ah, Rumi this is an interview remember? You're not supposed to ask me any questions." Yua reminded her awkwardly.

"You're right, my apologies, I'll stop asking questions from now on." Rumi resolved as she took a deep breath," Just so we're clear though, you aren't a Libra right?"

"This might take awhile." Gogo advised Yua, who simply chose not to answer the question and move on from there.

"Right, so my next question for you is what do you think are your top three best qualities?" Yua questioned.

Rumi took a few moments to think about this one, and the longer she took, the more interested Yua appeared to be in her response.

Finally, Rumi was able to come up with an answer and responded with," I think my top three qualities are that I'm creative, I'm patient and I'm always willing to try out new things."

Yua wrote all of this down quickly while Rumi waited to be asked another question. Meanwhile, Gogo continued looking through Yua's book of princesses as it proved itself to be a bit more entertaining than the "audition". Each princess had looked really different from the other and each had a story that admittedly inspiring. The girl Gogo was currently looking at was a girl who's goal in life was to help others. She was unsure how she would do this however and she claimed that the two professions that she was torn between was a doctor or a teacher. As all the other girls, she was drawn in a very ornate dress with a large amount of decorations. Her dress was aquamarine and green and it was strapless with a mermaid style skirt. Her curly dark brown hair flowed down to her waist and portion of it was braided and wrapped around her head. But, the part of her outfit that Gogo was most intrigued in was the necklace she was wearing. The necklace was a simple white pendant that featured a smiling face on it, looking very similar to the ones Gogo and Rumi had.

Gogo then directed her attention to Yua, who was now asking Rumi questions like what her favourite colours were. It was definitely a possibility that Yua had just imagined up the accessory for the girl to wear, but...it seemed too unlikely for that to happen. So that could've only meant that the girl that was drawn really had that necklace, or Yua knew someone else who did.

"Do you mind if I go put my phone to charge really quickly?" Rumi asked after Yua asked a set of the most basic questions she had that she wanted to get out of the way. Yua let Rumi go to put her phone to charge and as soon as Rumi left, Gogo called Yua over to investigate.

"She's got a nice necklace, did she have it on or did you just see it somewhere else?" Gogo asked as casually as she possibly could.

"Oh, I think I just that saw online," Yua answered with a wave of dismissal," But this girl is really cool! She's my latest princess, the Princess of Compassion. She has big dreams, but she's a little indecisive right now, she didn't have to tell me this but I already knew after meeting her that she had a longing to help others. She was a bit nervous when I asked to draw her as a princess, but she warmed up to the idea pretty quickly."

Gogo nodded as she listened and then asked," She seems cool, does she go to our school?"

"Yeah, I'm actually surprised that you didn't recognize her," Yua stated," It's the student body vice-president, Kaigara Hamazuki."

"Oh." Gogo said as she double-blinked, her gaze still on the picture _," I think I've already met her then...At least I should've if she supposedly hangs out with Yukina."_

"Alright Yua, I'm ready for your questions again!" Rumi declared as she reentered the room. Gogo took one last look at the latest illustrated princess before she decided watch Yua interview Rumi again.

"This is probably my favourite question to ask..." Yua began as she glanced through some of notes she had written down earlier," So Rumi, what are some of your hobbies?"

"My hobby is creating makeup tutorial videos. I just love anything that has to do with makeup, I find makeup to be an empowering and expressive device. It makes me feel confident and some day I hope I'll be able to help others tap into their confident sides through cosmetics."

"I see, Yua commented as she wrote Rumi's response into notepad," What other hobbies do you have?"

Now Gogo seemed a bit more interested than before, as Rumi never really talked about her other interests. Rumi seemed to have been caught off-guard though, she was so sure that her somewhat long-winded answered would've been enough for Yua. Rumi pretended she was deep in thought for a few moments but soon she felt like this act was working against so she finally decided to tell truth.

"I guess I don't have many other interests... I mean, I've always liked taking pictures and reading but, I never really considered those hobbies." Rumi answered sheepishly.

Yua then responded with,"Interesting, um, I wasn't prying or anything was I?"

"No, not at all!" Rumi reassured awkwardly," Did you have any other questions left?"

Yua shook her head, as she said," I think I've got a good idea for what your story shall be about anyways, I'll work on a rough copy of it tonight and show it tomorrow, does that sound ok?"

Rumi nodded in approval and Yua began to gather her things. The three of them walked to the front door and Yua said,

"It was fun interviewing you, I can't wait to show what I have planned for your princess tomorrow!"

When Yua left, Gogo wondered whether or not she should tell Rumi about the necklace she saw on Yua. It still seemed suspicious to her, but for now Gogo decided not to tell Rumi in case that Yua was telling her the truth about seeing the necklace online.

"Gogo would you like to stay for dinner?" Rumi offered as she walked into the kitchen," I'm cooking tonight since my dad won't reach home for another hour and Kei might get home around eight."

"No, it's ok, I wouldn't want to overstay a visit." Gogo answered bashfully, as she picked up her bag and started to head to the door.

"No, I insist! I'm trying out a new recipe tonight and it'd be nice to get some feedback on it." Rumi stated as she began to take things out from the cupboards.

Gogo snickered at the Rumi using the word feedback in this instance before she said, "Well, I guess I could stay for a bit."

While Rumi prepared dinner, Gogo worked on some of her homework in the meanwhile. She was evidently a lot more tense now that it was just her and Rumi, not to mention she was going to stay at her place and have dinner with her. Whatever Rumi was cooking, it smelt really good, so good that it was distracting Gogo from her work. As Gogo tapped her pencil against her notebook, she realized she had altogether stopped trying to read the history question on her worksheet and was trying to remember when last she had dinner at a friend's place. It had been at Taeko's house three years ago, the thought of it being so long ago making Gogo cringe.

"I would've never thought that I'd ever be having dinner at a third-year's place..." Gogo mused to herself as she watched Rumi work in the kitchen. She then noticed a sketchbook that looked like Yua's sitting on the floor beside the one-seater in Rumi's living room. Curiously, she picked it up.

"Gogo I'm almost finished, would you be able to set the table for me?" Rumi asked. Gogo nodded attentively and stood up, walking towards towards the kitchen, where Rumi was still stirring away at the pot that was on top on the stove.

"Just take those placemats and some plates inside that cupboard, I'll take care of the utensils," Rumi instructed as she pointed to the cupboard above Gogo. Gogo nodded and took four plates and placemats to the table. As Gogo finished arranging the plates and placemats on the table, Rumi arrived with the steaming pot plus a large spoon in her hands. Gogo took a seat and Rumi walked over to her.

"Just take as much as you want," Rumi said as she handed Gogo the pot," What would you like to drink though?"

"I'll just have water," Gogo answered as she began to put the food on her plate. It looked like some kinda of pasta mixed with peppers and chicken with really thick sauce.

Rumi returned with two glasses in her hand, and took the bowl from Gogo after she set the glasses onto the table. Rumi filled her plate up and then kept the leftovers in a bowl inside the microwave. The two of them ate in silence but soon, Rumi attempted to break the ice and stiffly asked,

"How does it taste?"

"It's great!" Gogo replied in a surprisingly enthusiastic voice," What is it though?"

"Chicken fajita pasta." Rumi replied after taking a spoonful from her bowl," I saw the recipe online and I just had to make it!"

Gogo smiled at Rumi's enthusiastic comment before the room fell quiet. Just sitting and having dinner with Rumi at her place was unlike anything Gogo ever experienced. It still felt weird just being at Rumi's place,it made Gogo much more inquisitive as she looked around the dining room. One could say that the style of the room was "minimalist" another person however would easily say that the room, as well as the living was painfully empty with nothing but the essentials vacating it. It looked like the exact opposite of Gogo's living room, where if the room was organized with her brothers out of the vicinity, there'd be small little ornaments her mom would collect along with a bunch of family photos placed on the walls. Rumi's place didn't feature any ornaments, or paintings, not even a single family photo. It was clutter-free and pristine to Rumi, but Gogo still seemed unused to it.

"So Gogo, do you have any plans for the summer?" Rumi asked casually as the two of them ate.

"Nothing really planned, no." Gogo answered keeping her gaze down," So it's just your dad and your brother living with you here?"

"Yeah, my mom passed away when I was younger. These days the house is really quiet in the afternoon, so having company today was quite nice." Rumi answered curtly as she continued to eat.

"Sorry for asking, I was just curious!" Gogo apologized worriedly, before realizing that Rumi wasn't as uneasy as she thought, so she continued to speak," I can't really remember the last time there was any quiet in my house. When it's just me and my bros all hell breaks loose. My parents finally got switched to the morning shift permanently a couple weeks ago, so at least now they're home to watch over them, so it's a bit more tolerable at my place. But now I got some time to myself, and I have no clue what to do with it."

"Sounds like someone needs a hobby," Rumi commented with a smirk, with Gogo shrugging in response.

"Maybe so." Gogo replied tonelessly as she stared at her glass of water.

Later that night, Yua worked away furiously at the desk in her room as she drew a reference sheet for the princess persona of Rumi. She had been working on the reference sheet, along with the manuscript for her story all night and she couldn't recall feeling this inspired in a long time. She was almost finished with the manuscript and decided to take a break from it to start working on the reference sheet. As Yua began to look at formal gowns online, she felt more and more unsure of what kinda dress would look best on her. It was a task that proved itself to be much more difficult than Yua imagined because almost everything Yua pictured on princess Rumi looked good on her.

Yua took a deep breath and looked through some more dresses. One of them eventually caught her eye and not only was it ridiculously pretty, it looked perfect for Rumi's princess! It wasn't too showy or drab, and had this breeze of elegance to it. It was the perfect blend of modern and fairytale. The dress went to the floor and was a shade of pink that was pale and calming to look at. The skirt seemed plain at first glance but once Yua zoomed in on the picture she noticed there were floral details laced into it. The bodice was probably her favourite part however, with it's sheer panel above the chest and beaded floral pattern in the center. Sure, some things could been altered like the open-back and neck line, but this for sure was the one for Rumi's princess.

"It's gorgeous..." Yua said in awe as she gazed the zoomed-in, higher quality pictures of the dress. As she looked at it though, she came to a realization and a frown appeared on her face. But, she shook her head and began to draw the dress.

"So Takai's going to be a princess?" Ms. Hightower asked curiously as she organized a stack of papers on her desk before class started. It was early morning and it was just her and Gogo in the classroom. It was a tad suspicious for Gogo to have shown up at the school this early to tell her something like this, but she let her continue with story.

"Well, _drawn_ as a princess. Gosh, the kid was asking her so many dumb questions like 'what's your sign?' and stuff but that's not as important." Gogo explained," Anyways, she let me look through this book she had of previous princesses she's drawn and while I was looking through her book, I saw a girl who had the same necklace as me and Rumi!"

"Well, did she tell you who the girl was?" Ms. Hightower questioned, sounding a bit impatient now.

Gogo was surprised to see that Hightower wasn't even the slightest bit shocked to have heard this but Gogo said nothing of it," The vice-president. Yua tried telling me that she saw the necklace online but, I couldn't find the thing when I tried searching it up."

"Hamazuki could be a Pretty Cure, huh?" Ms. Hightower commented quietly as she took a seat at her desk.

"Should we tell her about Pretty Cure?" Gogo asked.

"Not yet, Yua could've been telling you the truth." Ms. Hightower pointed out, sounding unsure of her own statement" Just...keep an eye on her for now."

Yua walked to school early that morning, feeling a bit more tired than usual. Last night she finished the manuscript and the reference sheet for Rumi's princess, but she was feeling out of place after finishing those two things. She had looked through the book of previous princesses and came to the realization that she was surrounded by remarkable girls and she, was just Yua. All she was able to do was draw some pictures. She wasn't able to tutor her whole class and never made an effort to take on the role of a leader. Even Rumi, who might not have seemed like much at first glance, proved herself worthy of the title princess to Yua. Yua then stopped walking for a brief moment and stared at her reflection in the puddle she arrived in front of.

"I'm not amazing like all the other girls I've illustrated. I'm plain and kinda boring, but somehow...that doesn't even surprise me." Yua said quietly as she looked down at her reflection in the puddle.

The wind picked up for a moment and suddenly, Yua could hear a girl shout in dismay nearby. She walked over to a nearby set of benches and found the vice-president Kaigara at her knees in front of a larger puddle, attempting to pull out some papers that had fallen in.

"Please be ok, please be ok, please be ok..." Kaigara pleaded as she gingerly pulled them out from the puddle, horrified to see how the papers looked now," I could've have just typed this thing up and printed it out twice or even take a stupid picture of it."

"Hamazuki, is everything ok?" Yua asked as she walked over to Kaigara and knelt down next to her.

"No, this was a list of events planned for next semester and they were supposed to be presented today. But I can't let Yukina show these to the rest of the student council now!" Kaigara shouted as she tried waving the page to emphasize her point with some success.

"Doesn't Yukina have a copy though?" Yua inquired as Kaigara tried to dry off the page.

"I have the master copy, the most Yukina has is some notes of key dates." Kaigara explained before she exhaled a large sigh," Now I'll have to start from scratch and I gotta finish it before lunch time."

"Um, is there anything I can do to help?" Yua asked as she and Kaigara both stood up.

"No, it's fine. Thanks for offering though, I think I'll be able to remake this in time anyways, I was probably just overthinking things..." Kaigara said dismissively," I'll see you around, Yua."

Yua and Kaigara went in opposite directions as Yua planned to meet with Rumi before class to show her the drawings.

Thinking about what happened earlier at Melancholy made Storm smile as he glowered down at Kaigara.

 _"You little brat! Once again, you try and take Storm's turn and despite failing three times in defeating you still show your face here." Nijoux hissed as Onyx was just about to leave._

 _"I could say the same thing to you." Onyx remarked," They keep multiplying and we keep upsetting Castra with each and every failed mission. I don't care for turns but if Storm wants to go see the Pretty Cure so badly, then fine he can tag along, no one's stopping him."_

 _Onyx and Nijoux both looked towards Storm, who starting walking towards Onyx._

 _"Yeah I'll go..." He said quietly, uninterestedly, his voice quiet. He then turned around a flicked a small, transparent orb that when launched into the air turned into a force field between him, Onyx and Nijoux._

 _"...But not with you." Storm finished as he vanished._

"A strange gift from Nijoux who claims she got it from Castra...strange, indeed." Storm reminisced before he returned his gaze to Kaigara," She looks like a fine target..."

"But what do you mean I have to tell Rumi?" Gogo groaned as Ms. Hightower led her to Rumi and Yua's meeting spot.

"You're the one who saw the locket on the drawing, so obviously you have to tell her." Ms. Hightower answered as walked quickly towards the spot," Come on, we gotta get there before Yua."

"What good will it do telling her right now though?" Gogo asked before the two heard what sounded like a girl screaming.

"You don't think that was Yua, do you?" Gogo asked nervously before she and Ms. Hightower bolted outside.

Rumi, who just arrived at the school, also heard the scream and assumed it was Yua as she ran towards the front yard of the school.

"Yua! Where are you-?" Rumi stopped in her tracks as she saw an Endopath made from Kaigara's pencil case. The Endopath made eye contact with Rumi and without a second thought, Rumi pulled out her locket and shouted out,

"Pretty Cure, turn that frown upside down!"

"A soothing sensation to bring you at peace, Cure Delight!" Delight introduced.

Delight then directed her attention to the Endopath. The Endopath was halfway unzipped and an army of tall pencils started to run towards her. The Endopath pencils surrounded her and she had no other option but to fight all of them simultaneously. Delight was quick with her attacks, sending precise, powerful kicks to each Endopath that tried to land a hit on her. But, the Endopaths individually gave a better fight than she expected. They were getting weaker, only multiplying in numbers without her even realizing it and before she was outmatched, she could see a flicker of light from the corner of her eye.

"Cure Delight, heads up!" Cure Joy shouted from atop of a tree. Cure Delight seemed confused but just then Storm shouted to the Endopath army.

"Jump!"

Joy directed her attack towards the crowd around Delight and once the Endopaths did as told, Joy's attack suddenly changed direction and hit the mass of Endopaths in midair.

"She had her attack follow the Endopaths?" Storm commented incredulously to himself.

"How did you do that?" Delight asked Joy after she jumped out of the tree and near to her.

"Oh, I just...willed it to I guess? It's hard to explain, I was kinda thinking like, 'Attack, go to the Endopaths!', you know?" Joy explained, though Delight wasn't quite following," Anyways, don't you think this match-up's looking pretty unfair?"

Delight began, "These Endopaths aren't really as weak as I was anticipating, usually in scenarios like this-"

"The Endopaths would've been weak one on one and worked better as a team. I'm guessing even when these guys are on they're own, they're still putting up a good fight." Joy estimated as she looked around the area. The Endopaths were marching up towards them again, only a little battered from Joy's attack and still abundant in numbers. Not a single one had been defeated from the attack, it seemed like even more had appeared before them. Delight then noticed that pencil Endopaths were still coming out of the pencil case Endopath a couple feet away from them.

"I think our best bet right now would be to zip up the mouth of the pencil case Endopath so we won't have to worry about their numbers increase." Delight suggested, with Joy nodding in response.

"Sounds good, I can distract the rest of them, you zip up the Endopath." Joy instructed, though it seemed like Delight wasn't willing to comply," Don't worry, I can handle them."

Delight didn't argue, leaping up and leaving Joy to battle against the rest of the Endopath army. Delight faced some difficulty getting towards the pencil case though, as once she landed back onto the ground, she was met with a crowd of Endopaths anticipating her appearance. She was almost surrounded, and one of the immediately charged towards her and she barely evaded the attack.

"I really don't have time for this." Delight said to herself, rolling her eyes as she held her hands in front of herself while shouting," Pretty Cure, Jovial Twinkle!"

She cleared herself a way through the mass of Endopaths and ran as fast as she possibly could towards the pencil case Endopath. Delight stared at the pencil case Endopath for a few moments ago, noticing that the arms of the pencil case Endopath didn't reach the zippers, which would make it impossible to zip itself up. But, something seemed odd about the pencil case Endopath.

"It's not paying any attention to me, it's just staring straight ahead." Delight said quietly," Why is that?"

Meanwhile Joy was still fighting against the Endopath army, having little to no avail in depleting them of their numbers. Just going against one probably wouldn't have been much of a problem but with the amount of opponents only getting higher, Joy was soon at wit's end.

 _"Damn it, one wrong move and it's over for me!"_ Joy thought to herself as she threw one of the pencil Endopaths into the group right in front of her.

Delight hung on top of the pencil case Endopath, lunging for the zipper. The fact that the Endopath didn't even notice that Delight was right there was bothering immensely and left her on edge as she tried to retrieve the zipper. Endopaths continued to exit from the pencil case and Delight suddenly realized why the pencil case wasn't paying attention to her.

"Could it be that this Endopath isn't the one controlling the others?" Delight asked,"It still wouldn't hurt to finally close this thing up. But, if this isn't the leader, it must be somewhere in this crowd. Where would it be though-?"

Behind Joy, Delight saw a pencil Endopath with a black star on it's eraser getting ready to put Joy in a choke hold.

"No!" Delight shouted out, as she reached out her hand, sending a bright white and blue beam towards the Endopath. The beam blasted the Endopath towards into a tree and basically cleared out the swarm of Endopaths behind Joy. Joy spun around and stared at the spot where the mass of Endopaths was behind her and saw them all on the ground a few feet away. She then looked towards her teammate in question while Delight quickly zipped up the pencil case Endopath and ran towards Joy to aid her in battle.

The two Cures were back to back, the group of Endopaths a bit smaller now. The lead Endopath rose up and went back to fighting with the Cures while the other Endopaths that had been caught in the crossfire stayed on the ground.

"I think if we get the Endopath with the black star on it's eraser head, we won't have to worry about the rest of them!" Delight said with Joy nodding in response," This time though, we should both fight against the main Endopath."

"Say no more." Joy replied as she threw a multitude of kicks towards the Endopaths before her. Somehow, the Endopaths seemed weaker than before. It was getting easier and easier to cut through them now and they seemed less to get back on their feet after they had been knocked down once. It helped that the girls were actually working together on the same task this time too. As the Cures fought relentlessly, both of them were becoming suspicious of the fact that they yet to come in contact with the main Endopath for awhile now.

"What do you think happened to the lead guy?" Joy asked Delight quietly, before she saw the exact Endopath she was talking about dashing towards the pencil case Endopath.

"Ah! Not so fast!" Joy shouted, running towards the pair of Endopaths and unintentionally leaving her fellow Cure behind.

"Pretty Cure, Vivacious Spark!" Joy shouted as she ran towards the Endopath.

The Endopath dodged her attack and leapt on top of the pencil case Endopath.

Joy sighed and leapt on top of the pencil case Endopath and attempted to knock the main Endopath off on to the ground. The Endopath evaded her punch and grabbed her by the leg and dangled her from the top of the pencil case Endopath.

"Thank god for these shorts but you gotta let go!" Joy yelled as she tried to break free from the Endopath's clutch. The Endopath did as Joy said and dropped her without hesitation.

"Pretty Cure, Effervescent Beam!" Delight shouted. Her attack hit the Endopath square in the face and it fell off from the pencil case Endopath. Delight ran towards the Endopath to make sure that the job was finished while Joy was still on the ground.

"That's gonna leave a bruise..." Joy griped as she slowly stood up.

Delight found the Endopath stuck inside a bush, taking note of the fact that the black star was still in tact. So, she walked over to it and drove her heel into the black star. The black star was cracked and Delight then conjured up her scepter.

"Pretty Cure, Jovial Twinkle!" Delight shouted as the atmosphere turned a pale pink and blue in mid-sentence. The Endopath was cleansed reverted back into it's original form, leaving behind a white pearlescent charm.

Delight then rushed over to her fellow Cure as she shouted," Joy, are you alright?"

"I'm fine, but...who was the victim?" Joy asked.

The girls then noticed Kaigara on a bench waking and detransformed to see if she was ok.

"That was insane!" Yua said to herself quietly from behind a pillar near an entrance to the school," I guess the larger one was acting like a generator for the team of them and the girls mistook it for the leader. But, since those two came here so quickly, does that mean they go here? But perhaps a better question be..."

Yua then retrieved a pendant slung onto her necklace that was underneath her shirt. The pendant was white and glossy with a smiling face carved onto it

Yua then shook her head and put the necklace back into her shirt as she walked into the school building.

Gogo and Rumi walked with Kaigara into the school, who was talking a mile a minute about the incident though she had been unconscious for all it.

"And then these two girls came from literally nowhere and started beating up this group of pencils and I was thinking 'Why the heck are they doing that?' before the pencils starting attacking them!" Kaigara explained.

"Yeah, dreams are weird like that, huh?" Gogo said awkwardly," Well, you wouldn't want to be late for class so-"

"You're right! I'll see you some other time" Kaigara exclaimed as she zipped past the other students crowding the halls and left the two of them behind.

"She wouldn't let us get a word in..." Gogo said sheepishly," Well, we'll just have to find some other way of telling her."

"Um, Gogo? How were you able to figure out that stuff as quickly as you did? You know, with commanding your attack to follow the Endopath? I'll admit, I didn't think we could do that up until now." Rumi confessed.

"I've been doing some reading..." Gogo answered nonchalantly.

Rumi narrowed her eyes at her as she said," Reading? Reading what?"

Gogo then revealed a sketchbook that looked identical to the one Yua had all her princesses drawn in," Yua's got a side-project."

Rumi then took the sketchbook from Gogo with an incredulous look on her face as she opened it up," Spectacular Sumi? Is this supposed to be some kind of comic book?"

"Despite the cheesy names and questionable anatomy, the writing's pretty good and Yua seems to have a better grasp of the whole superhero business than we do." Gogo stated as Rumi flipped through the book.

"You know, perhaps Yua wouldn't be a bad teammate..." Rumi said as she looked through the comic book before she gave it back to Gogo," Maybe if we can find the gachapon machine, we could recruit her!"

"Sounds like a plan." Gogo said as she closed the comic book.


End file.
